CBCP pleads gov’t to let Rosal attend baby’s burial

Andrea Rosal arrives at IFI surrounded by BJMP armed guards pic.twitter.com/bnK667FDoh

— Renato Reyes, Jr. (@natoreyes) May 21, 2014

After the court’s dismissal of her request to be present in her baby’s burial, a church official is now urging the government to allow Andrea Rosal, the daughter of the late Communist Party of the Philippines – New People’s Army (CPP-NPA) spokesman to attend her baby’s burial.

Fr. Melvin Castro, Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines’ (CBCP) executive secretary of Episcopal Commission on Family and Life ,said that Rosal–though arrested and accused of rebellion–should not be deprived of seeing her baby for the last time.

Last Tuesday, Judge Toribio Ilao Jr. of the Pasig City Court Branch 226 denied Rosal’s request to attend the baby’s burial who died in a hospital because of hypoxemia, an oxygen deficiency in the arterial blood which also causes respiratory disorders because of the lack of oxygen supply in the body.

Rosal was arrested last march by authorities in Caloocan and was only allowed to attend the wake of her baby in Taft Avenue, Manila for three hours on May 21.

Ilao explained in an interview for the Philippine Daily Inquirer that he partially granted the motion which sought for a three-day leave to attend both the wake and the burial.

Rosal was not allowed to attend the baby’s funeral in her hometown in Ibaan, Batangas because of her medical condition.

Ilao said he “partially granted” Rosal’s motion, which had sought a three-day leave to attend the wake and burial, after Rosal asked for “human consideration” and despite the prosecution insisting that she was a “high risk” prisoner.

“We appeal to the government to allow Rosal to attend the burial of her baby,” Castro said in an interview for the Manila Bulletin.

He also added that Rosal is “first and foremost a mother” and that she had already been deprived of her rights to receive medical care while pregnant.

“She was already deprived of her basic human and maternal right to receive appropriate medical care during her pregnancy. Let us not deprive her of her right to bury her dead,” he said. ”She might be considered a rebel but she is first and foremost a mother.”

With reports from Manila Bulletin and Philippine Daily Inquirer