Quezon City, Philippines - A group of child rights advocates led by SALINLAHI Alliance for Children’s Concerns joined the protest in front of the Department of Defense (DND) to condemn the abduction and torture of 43 health workers by the AFP’s 202nd Infantry Brigade and the Philippine National Police (PNP) in Morong, Rizal.  “We condemn the illegal arrest of the health workers who are just having seminar for the betterment of poor communities especially in the far flung areas,” Sophia Garduce, the group’s spokesperson said.

Garduce also scored the military for inflicting mental and physical torture to the health workers. “The torture inflicted on them goes against all humanitarian law and the AFP once again has shown its wanton disregard for human rights by adding this to its long record of torturing detainees to extract information against their will,” Garduce said. She also added that “The health workers are innocent of all the charges labeled against them, and yet the military treats them much much worse than the kid gloves’ treatment of the detained Ampatuans.”

Garduce noted that one those detained, Dr. Merry Mia-Clamor is a PTA Vice President of the   Parents Alternative for Early Childhood Care and Development, Inc. (PAECCDI), a SALINLAHI member organization. “She regularly sends and fetches their child from the day care center run by PAECCDI, and conducts medical check-ups for the children in the center. We can attest to her work as a health professional and assert that the charges against her and all the other health trainees are all false and are intended  to sow terror among health professionals who are willing to serve sincerely the poor who are neglected by the government,” stated Garduce.

The group also raised their concern that among the 26 female detainees, two are pregnant. “The pregnant women need maternal health care, but with their present condition, we fear for their health and the safety of the unborn fetus,” Garduce said.

Salinlahi and its member organizations believe that the abduction and subsequent illegal detention of the 43 health workers is a desperate move of the AFP and PNP to meet the deadline set by Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, to crush the insurgency by June 2010 as dictated by their Oplan Bantay Laya. “This is a clear case of witch-hunting through trumped-up charges against perceived enemies who turn out to be innocent and sincere servants of the people.  The state forces who took part in the operation to arrest the health workers are in such deep paranoia that they no longer distinguish civilians from combatants; and as such, all sectors are already their targets,” ended Garduce. ###