Philippines’s Oldest Woman Political Prisoner Released

 Philippines’s Oldest Woman Political Prisoner Released

By RONALYN V. OLEA
Bulatlat.com
MANILA — The country’s oldest woman political prisoner has been released from the Misamis Occidental Provincial Jail in Oroquieta City last Feb. 17.

After almost six years in detention, Angelina Bisuña Ipong, 66, finally walked free as the last in the string of cases filed against her by the military was dismissed.

Click here for previous Bulatlat.com stories on Angelina Ipong.
Ipong, a consultant of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP), was arrested on March 8, 2005, in Lumbayao village, Aloran town, Misamis Occidental, by combined elements of the Philippine National Police’s Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) and the Southern Command of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP). She was held incommunicado for 14 days and was allegedly subjected to sexual molestation and torture.

Angelina Ipong in detention.

Presiding Judge Bernadette S. Paredes-Encinareal of the Regional Trial Court Branch 36, Calamba, Misamis Occidental, dismissed the double murder, double frustrated murder, and arson charges against Ipong, according to a statement by the Union of Peoples’ Lawyers in Mindanao (UPLM).

Ipong’s release marked the third day of formal peace negotiations between the Government of the Philippines (GPH) and the NDFP in Oslo, Norway.

The dismissal of the charges came after Pablito Sanidad, a member of the GPH peace panel, sent a letter to Encinareal purportedly asking the latter to expedite the decision on Ipong’s cases..... MORE

Source:  Bulatlat.com

URL: http://bulatlat.com/main/2011/02/20/ofws-who-lived-for-years-under-a-bridge-in-jeddah-return-home-with-harrowing-tales-of-neglect/