On Dec. 10, President Benigno S. Aquino III, responding to the outcry here and abroad about the detention of the 43 , ordered the DOJ to withdraw the charges against the 43 health workers. Aquino’s favorable action was made on the seventh day of hunger strike staged by the Morong 43. The president acknowledged that the rights of the 43 were violated.

Listen to several of the Morong 43 talk about their plight.

According to the victims, the warrant of arrest used in the raid was defective; it only had one name in it — of one Mario Condes, who was not among the arrested — and the address was not specific.

The victims claimed the authorities planted the weapons as evidence against them and that they were mistreated while in custody, with soldiers, at some point, wiping the genitals of the women detainees each time they went to the toilet to relieve themselves.

The authorities also prohibited journalists from interviewing the detainees, even preventing relatives from seeing them in the early days of their detention.

For multimedia content (video, audio, photos) from Bulatlat.com on the Morong 43, click here.

Relatives of some of the detainees, particularly the five who were coerced by the military to accuse them of being rebels, complained that they had been harassed and intimidated by the military.

Thirty-five of the Morong 43 are detained at Metro Manila District Jail inside Camp Bagong Diwa. Two women, Carina Judilyn Oliveros and Mercy Castro, gave birth during detention and have been placed under “hospital arrest” at the Philippine General Hospital.

Lawyers and relatives of some of the Morong 43 confer outside Camp Bagong Diwa tonight, minutes before the detainees were released. (Photo by Karl Ramirez / Kodao Productions)

One male detainee, Franco Romeroso, is confined at the Taguig-Pateros District Hospital after he suffered from dehydration due to diabetes. Five of the Morong 43 have remained under military custody in Camp Capinpin, Tanay, Rizal.

After hearing the news of release order, relatives and supporters who had been staking out outside the compound of Morong Hall of Justice hugged one another and shed tears of joy. They went straight to the Camp Bagong Diwa to fetch their loved ones, where a gaggle of journalists, many of them already there since 9 .am., met them.

Reaction to the Morong 43’s release had been heartwarming, to say the least. On the social networks, particularly Facebook where a “Free the 43” campaign had been going on for months, encouraging notes were posted well into the night. “Great,” wrote Mon Ramirez, an activist with the group of scientists called Agham. “The Morong 43 are being freed, so I’m back to my old profile picture.” Activists on Facebook had earlier waged a campaign asking supporters to change their profile pictures with a “Free the 43” image in support of the detainees.

“My Christmas will be happy, the 43 will be free!!!” wrote activist and writer Terence Krishna Lopez.

 Save as PDF