Update: 43 health workers get SC writ
by Michael Tan
Philippine Daily Inquirer
I know some of you are expecting a column about yesterday’s Inquirer forum at UP with the presidential candidates. I have a lot to share about that event, but I have to postpone that article because I want to write about a very urgent issue, one which has implications for the elections.
I’m referring to the raid conducted last Saturday on a health workers’ training seminar organized by an NGO, the Council for Health and Development (CHD), resulting in the arrest of 42 of the workshop participants. That included two physicians, one nurse and one midwife. All the others were community health workers, most of whom were poor farmers or workers who have been trained as paramedics and health educators. The 42 were brought to Camp Panopio in Tanay, Rizal.
The media reports have mostly featured the military’s claims that the workshop participants were rebels and they were being trained to make bombs. There has been little from the detainees themselves because the mass media have been denied access to the prisoners.
My column today mainly uses information from Dr. Delen de la Paz, vice president of Health Action for Human Rights, and press statements from CHD.
The workshop was being held on private property, a farm/resort owned by Dr. Melecia Velmonte, a retired 71-year-old professor emeritus at the UP College of Medicine who often lets health NGOs use her place for such training activities.
