Jailed mother, son allowed to see dead kin
Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra has allowed the imprisoned wife and son of now deceased political prisoner Jesus Alegre to see his remains for the last time on Friday.
“Yes, I have granted the request,” Guevarra said in a message.
Just the other day, group Kapatid asked Guevarra for a ‘compassionate permit’ for Morita Alegre and son Selman to attend the memorial service for Jesus at the National Cathedral of the Iglesia Filipina Independiente (IFI) in Taft Avenue, Ermita, Manila.
In a letter to Guevarra, group spokesperson Fides Lim cited the Bureau of Corrections’ (BuCor) Security and Safekeeping Procedure (Rule 6.8.2) based on the BuCor Operating Manual that allows persons deprived of liberty (PDLs) to view the remains of a deceased relative with “the prior approval by the Secretary for the outside movement of an NBP or CIW PDL.”
“For compassionate and humanitarian reasons, we request you to please allow the imprisoned wife and son of 75-year-old political prisoner Jesus Alegre to join his wake and the funeral mass scheduled on June 18, Friday, 10 a.m.,” she said.
She said that the wake will be for only one day in consideration of health protocols.
“After the funeral mass, through financial support, the remains of Jesus Alegre will be flown to his home province of Negros Occidental for burial, in accordance with the wishes of his wife,” she added.
“With your intercession, this will be the first time in 16 years that Morita will be able to see her husband and to rejoin her family . . . Sir, what is but one visit when they have lost a lifetime of being together as a whole family? And what is three hours when Morita will see her husband for the first and last time after 16 years—inside a coffin,” Lim appealed.
Alegre died last June 13 after months of increased weakness and disorientation. He and his wife Morita, 74, and son Selman, 47, were convicted of murder in a land dispute case although the principal witness, the wife of the bodyguard who was killed, submitted an affidavit of desistance, effectively recanting their involvement.
