Poet still detained under false charges

NUPL files 2nd motion for resolution of Ericson Acosta case before DOJ

By Free Ericson Acosta Campaign
May 18, 2012

QUEZON CITY  –  The National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers (NUPL), counsel of detained artist Ericson Acosta, today filed a second motion before the Department of Justice (DOJ), calling for the immediate resolution of the Acosta case review.

Ericson Acosta is an activist, poet and former editor of the University of the Philippines’ Philippine Collegian.  He was arrested without warrant by the military while conducting research in an upland barrio in Samar on February 13, 2011. After three days of interrogation and torture inside a military camp, a false charge of illegal possession of explosive was filed against him to justify his arrest.

The Philippine UPR Watch, an ecumenical delegation of Philippine human rights organizations and advocates engaging in the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) process of the UN Human Rights Council (HRC), has filed complaints on the cases of artist Ericson Acosta and film student Maricon Montajes before the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention in Geneva, Switzerland.

The United Nations Human Rights Council UPR is scheduled to review the Philippines' human rights record this May. While Malacanang says that “there are no political prisoners,” there are actually more than 350 political prisoners all over the country. Acosta is but one out of nearly a hundred reported victims of arbitrary arrest and detention under President Aquino’s watch.

Acosta is also a songwriter, singer and thespian. In November 2011, he was named finalist of an international Imprisoned Artist Prize in Cape Town, South Africa along with filmmaker Dhongdup Wangchen of Tibet and musician Win Maw of Burma.

Various local and international artist and human rights groups support the call for his immediate release. The UP Diliman University Council, writers of the UP Creative Writing Center, the Concerned Artists of the Philippines, National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA), the Writers in Prison Committee of the PEN International, People’s Art Network, the Campaign for Human Rights in the Philippines-UK, and the Amnesty International, have all expressed concern over Acosta’s illegal arrest and prolonged detention.

On May 27, a year and three months after his illegal arrest, Acosta will mark his 40th birthday most likely still detained at the sub-provincial jail in Calbayog City, Samar, pending the resolution of the review petition filed by the NUPL since September. The NUPL’s second motion for resolution states that the appeal must now be resolved based on the petition, lacking any verified comment filed by the adverse party.

“The delay in the resolution of the Petition for Review is causing great prejudice and injustice to petitioner and has brought grave misery and difficulties to his family,” the motion read. The NUPL filed a first motion last February.

The Free Ericson Acosta Campaign (FEAC), in cooperation with Samahan ng mga Ex-Detainees Laban sa Detensyon at Aresto) SELDA and the All-UP Academic Employees Union, will hold “SERVE THE PEOPLE: Lugawan para sa Kalayaan”, a fund-raising event to help sustain Acosta’s legal defense funds, at the UP Diliman, Balay Kalinaw Dining Hall on May 27.

Actress Bibeth Orteza, singers Jess Santiago and Chickoy Pura, and painter Mideo Cruz are some of the artists and personalities who have volunteered to serve lugaw to guests. Former political prisoners, like poet Axel Pinpin, Prof. Judy Taguiwalo, and screenwriter Ricky Lee, will also join Acosta’s family and friends in celebrating his indispensable contribution to the student movement, to nationalist art and culture and to the struggle for freedom.