After years of detention, political prisoners Clydie Sabate, Kenneth Nabong, Jason John Gazon and Reymark Kisan were released last week from the Negros Occidental District Jail (NODJ) in Bago City. Their release follows a series of releases of other political prisoners on the island in the last week of February.

Sabate, Nabong, and Gazon were released on March 20. Sabate, a cultural worker from Teatro Obrero of Escalante City, was released after posting bail for charges of illegal possession of firearms and explosives and obstruction of justice. She was detained for six years and two months.

The National Federation of Sugar Workers (NFSW) previously reported that Sabate suffered torture, was stripped naked and held at gunpoint by state agents when abducted in January 2019. She was also reportedly subjected to intense interrogation to admit being a New People’s Army (NPA) member.

The 62nd IB and 94th IB arrested Nabong and Gazon, both from Himamaylan City, in Barangay Buenavista on June 9, 2021. The two were reportedly subjected to torture and guns planted as evidence on their person. The court dismissed the murder and attempted murder charges filed against them. They were detained for three years and nine months.

Meanwhile, Kisan, one of the co-accused of Nabong and Gazon, was released on March 18. He was detained for two years and one month.

With the release of the four, Kapatid-Negros Occidental stated that a thorough review of these baseless cases state forces filed against activists and progressives nationwide should be undertaken. Negros island still holds 104 political prisoners at present.

The group added that these fabricated cases were engineered by the Inter-Agency Legal Action Group of the Western Visayas Regional Task Force-Elcac. The group was created under the framework of the National Task Force-Elcac which was established by virtue of Executive Order 70 Rodrigo Duterte signed in December 2018. This was after Memorandum Order 32 placed Negros island under de facto martial law on November 22, 2018.