Inmates in Provincial Jails in Southern Philippines Need Medical Help

A three-day visit of BALAY in four jails in Southern Mindanao, Philippines hosting more than a thousand inmates found out that some detainees are dying because of lack of medical attention.

From October 12 to 14, a medical doctor and a social worker of BALAY Rehabilitation Center visited three (3) provincial and one (1) city jails in the provinces of Cotabato del Norte, ComVal, Sarangani and the city of Kidapawan. Twenty-four detainees accused of political offenses were medically examined. Twenty-three of the 24 have one or more diseases and most of them are not medically attended, including one with a life threatening infection in the provincial jail of North Cotabato.

In Sarangani, the province represented by Cong. Manny Paquiao in the Philippine Congress, a detainee in the provincial jail revealed that their ailing co-inmates are brought to the hospital only when they are in serious medical condition, thus inmates die in the hospital. He further said that they are lucky if in a year, a medical mission is conducted.

In ComVal, the warden at first refused to allow medical examination of the detainees citing the order of the provincial governor that a permit should be requested and approved first before inmates could be examined, but gave-in when the doctor cited international protocols recognizing the rights of prisoners. All of the 12 inmates examined are sick and all need medicines for their illnesses.

Sixteen of the 24 were tortured and two of them have Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.

BALAY is an NGO that provides biopsychosocial services to prisoners and former prisoners who were incarcerated, tortured or not because of alleged political offenses. Their families are also provided with the same services.

Benito E. Molino