Their legal counsel Neri Colmenares, former Bayan Muna party-list congressman, said students Gerald Salonga and Guiller Cadano, members of Anakbayan, submitted a petition for bail at the Regional Trial Court Branch 38 in San Jose City, Nueva Ecija last Aug. 11.
He referred to the students as “political detainees” who have been languishing in jail without trial.
Salonga and Cadamo were arrested by soldiers from the 7th Infantry Division of the Philippine Army on Aug. 9, 2014 in Barangay Padilla in Carranglan. The two insisted they were then merely doing research on the impacts of a proposed road project in the area on the farmers who happened to be members of the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP).
Colmenares lamented that two years after being arrested and jailed, the prosecution has yet to present its case, its witnesses and evidence. In the meantime, Salonga and Cadano are languishing in jail without trial.
“It is unfortunate that the phenomena of political prisoners during the time of former Pres. Ferdinand Marcos’ martial law has persisted even under the Aquino administration as government arrests dissenters and activists,” he lamented.
“We are hoping the court will find ways so that the case of Salonga and Cadano can move faster. The snail-paced resolution of this case and similar cases of politically-motivated arrests hinder the peace process needlessly and cause undue suffering on these young men,” he added.
