Meanwhile, in a statement distributed during the activity, the Alliance of Organizations of Friendship with Cuba called the Cuban Five’s detention a “grave injustice”. The statement – signed by Norma Biñas of the Philippine-Cuba Friendship Asociation (Amistad), Francisco Nemenzo of the Philippines-Cuba Cultural and Friendship Association (Philcuba), and Sally Corpuz of the Philippine-Cuban Friendship Society – read:
The United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention has found their incarceration arbitrary, and a gross violation of Article 14 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Amnesty International has demanded their immediate release. Hundreds of parliamentarians, numerous US and international jurists, and outstanding academic personalities throughout the world (including 10 Nobel Prize winners) have joined the campaign for their freedom.
We call on our Filipino compatriots to call on President Barack Obama to correct this grave injustice and release the Cuban Five.
The activity also featured performances by a group of Cuban dancers, as well as by Filipino individuals and groups, among them folk singer Noel Cabangon, Gina Francisco and Julie Po of the Concerned Artists of the Philippines (CAP), Tambisan sa Sining, Trinity’s Talento Entablado Trinitia At Isang Respetadong Organisasyon (T.E.A.T.R.O.), Ballet Philippines, and the Laguna State Polytechnic University Dance Troupe. (Bulatlat.com)
