Justice chief symphatizes with Nasino over death of child
Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra expressed sympathies to political prisoner Reina Mae Nasino over the death of her three-month old baby girl River.
“We sympathize with the accused for her personal loss, but her case is now before the court and the judicial process has to move on,” he said.
The Justice Secretary cited that the prosecutor handling her cases “did not oppose Nasino’s request for furlough.”
Presiding Judge Paulino Gallegos of the Manila Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 47 recently granted the motion of Nasino for a furlough so she can be at the wake and burial of her daughter today.
Her counsels at the National Union of People’s Lawyers (NUPL) criticized the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) for asking the court to reduce her furlough time by lying that it lacked personnel.
The NUPL also accused the BJMP of double standards by giving special treatment to privileged detainees and showing cruelty to Nasino when she visited the wake of her daughter at the La Funeraria Rey in Pandacan, Manila last Wednesday.
“I can’t blame them for their opinion,” Guevarra said. “Our justice system, like all systems created by human beings, is not a perfect system,” he said.
He noted that the country’s justice system is “shaped by our history and culture as a people, our values and attitudes, our institutional structures, and our economic and social condition.”
“Its development is a work that is continually in progress, and we all should do our part in it, by calling out those who have the power to institute reforms, by sharing progressive ideas instead of destructive criticisms, and by nurturing an attitude of concern and compassion for the oppressed and the downtrodden in our midst,” Guevarra said.