After three years in detention, a Manila Regional Trial Court (RTC) on Thursday ordered the release of Reina Mae Nasino and two other political activists Alma Moran and Ram Bautista.
Political prison support group Karapatan-Kapatid paid the three’s premium bail bond worth Php 282,000, which is 20 percent of the total amount of bail, for their temporary release.
“We decided to pay premium % as it’s impossible to raise the entire amount of 1,140,000 before Christmas Day. What’s important is to bring them home before Christmas Day,” the group said in a statement.
On Dec. 12, the Manila RTC Branch 47 granted the petition of three activists to post bail, citing the prosecution witnesses' failure to prove that “evidence of guilt was strong.”
The court earlier set Php 420,000 bail each for Nasino and Moran and Php 570,000 for Bautista.
The camp of the three political prisoners then filed a joint petition seeking to reduce the bail by half and argued that the amount was excessive.
In 2019, Nasino, Moran, and Bautista were arrested in Tondo, Manila, over alleged fabricated charges of illegal possession of firearms and explosives.
While serving in detention, Nasino gave birth to her baby named River but she died due to pneumonia.
