Various women's organizations on Thursday, international working women's day, staged a protest in front of the Department of Justice (DOJ) in Manila to demand the immediate release of all women political prisoners.
Gabriela women's party list, Karapatan-Selda, Tanggol Bayi, Citizens Rights Watch Network, Defend Peasant Women, and Free Our Sisters-Southern Tagalog also sent an appeal letter addressed to Justice Secretary Crispin 'Boying' Remulla.
In the letter, the groups asked Remulla to free these "poor women from rural and indigenous communities who were wrongly accused of crimes and unjustly languishing in jails."
According to the women-led groups, 162 out of 819 women political prisoners have been incarcerated solely because of their political beliefs and activism for women's rights.
They said some of these women are already in their twilight years, are sick, or have special needs.
The groups cited that an inmate namely Adora Faye de Vera, 68 years old, has been suffering from chronic asthma and anemia.
Other women prisoners are now a mother who have children relying on them, they added.
"There is no just reason for these women to languish in jail. More than decongesting the country's jails, freeing women political prisoners- in fact, all political prisoners - is a matter of delivery of justice," the groups underlined.
