Baby Carlen, daughter of political prisoner Nona Espinosa, died last February 14, 2021 due to an infection in the lungs and blood after being hospitalized for a few days due to low hemoglobin count. The baby was less than a month old, having been born in January while Nona Espinosa was under the custody of the Guihulngan Police Station at the Negros Oriental Provincial Hospital. According to human rights workers, Nona was held prior at a reportedly cramped up jail facility with minimal pre-natal care amidst the threat of COVID19.
On the day of delivering the baby, Nona was also going through medical complications and was advised to have a cesearean section operation rather than normal delivery. However, despite baby Carlen having breathing complications and a cleft palate, the mother and the child were reportedly separated after the operation, and was sent back to the Guihulngan three days later; unable to give proper postnatal care for her child.
Baby Carlen, upon having such birth complications, was handed off to Nona’s family’s jurisdiction–with no access to breastmilk or post-natal care.
Nona Espinosa, along with eight other peasant rights advocates including her husband were arrested and charged by police and military troopers of the 62nd Infantry Battalion (IB), accused of being high ranking officers of the armed rebel group New People’s Army at Barangay Buenavista, Guihulngan City, Negros Oriental on the early hours of September 20, 2020. Among the supposed trumped up charges against the nine peasant adovcates were multiple murder, robbery, theft, and frustrated murder charges, with her husband being charged for illegal possession of explosives, and illegal possession of firearms and ammunition.
Karapatan Alliance Philippines along with other civil organizations condemned the arrest of Nona Espinosa as trumped-up, and urgently demanded for her immediate release for humanitarian reasons as well as for necessary medical care such as pre-natal care, adequate nutrition for her and her child and a safe delivery in a medical facility that will ensure her health and proper neo-natal care for her baby.
However, Kabataan Para Sa Karapatan Negros Oriental states that such calls were not heeded, likening the case of Baby Carlen with that of Baby River, deceased child of political prisoner Reina Nasino, stating that both died due to the lack of their mother’s breastmilk and care that would have increased their immunity. They also hold the Duterte administration accountable for their death.
It was the Duterte regime’s blatant violence particularly against women and inhumane treatment of the prisoners that killed both Baby River and Baby Carlen.
Kabataan Para Sa Karapatan Negros Oriental
Furthermore, the youth human rights organization added that no baby or mother should go through what Nasino and Baby River or Nona and Baby Carlen went through, calling to an “end the of violent treatment against women in prisons and urgently demand for the release of all political prisoners.”
Paghimutad 