As “the oldest political prisoner in the country,” according to rights group Kapatid, Gerardo Dela Peña, 84, has been serving his sentence time at NBP for what he and other groups have described as trumped-up charges against him. | dexcabalzaINQ /PDI
“We are asking the Bureau of Corrections, Department of Justice, Supreme Court, and the Philippine government to grant what he has been longing for. Please have a heart,” she added.Born on April 23, 1939, Dela Peña, a farmer from Vinzons, Camarines Norte, is the oldest of 824 political prisoners in the country, as tallied by Kapatid.
The NPA had claimed responsibility for the killing. But Dela Peña denied he was a communist rebel and said he was merely a “scapegoat” who was “wrongfully convicted.”He used to head the Samahan ng Ex-Detainees Laban sa Detensyon at Aresto and was also a member of human rights group Karapatan. She added that “with his background as a human rights worker and former [village councilor], he easily gained the trust of his fellow PDLs. It’s very natural for him to help people. That’s why his fellow PDLs at NBP’s maximum security compound love him.”
When Lim visited Dela Peña in 2019, she was told that he had been coughing blood and was also long overdue for a cataract operation.When Kapatid last visited him in January, Dela Peña said “I’m already old and ill. In the time I have left, I wish I could be with my family.”But his wife Pilar and their two children do not even have the money to be able to commute and visit him.
“But no political prisoner has been included in any of the trumpeted government releases of elderly PDLs. Not even one,” Lim said.
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