Family members, friends, former colleagues, and allied organizations of Sally Crisostomo-Ujano, a defender of women and children’s rights, reiterated their call for her immediate release at a press conference on July 10. They also called for the enactment of the Human Rights Defenders Protection Bill and the abolition of the National Task Force-Elcac.

Ujano has defended the rights of women and children for three decades. She served as Women’s Crisis Center executive director from 2000 to 2007. From 2008 until her arrest, she worked as Philippines Against Child Trafficking national coordinator. She also participated in creating and implementing the Anti-Violence against Women and their Children Act of 2004.

Plainclothes police officers arrested Ujano on November 14, 2021. Authorities accused her of involvement in a New People’s Army (NPA) ambush in Quezon in 2005, and that she was a high-ranking official of the Communist Party of the Philippines and the NPA.

In May 2024, a court sentenced her to 10 to 17 years and 4 months imprisonment after convicting her on rebellion charges.

She is currently detained at the Correctional Institute for Women in Taguig City. Ujano faces many health problems, such as hypertension, heart arrhythmia, osteoarthritis, and scoliosis, which the Bureau of Correction clinic does not recognize.

Her family called on the Marcos regime to release her on humanitarian grounds. Various groups also called for the passage of the HRD bill and said, “the promotion of human rights is important for creating a just and humane society.”

The Salinlahi Alliance for Children’s Concerns and Sarah Elago of Gabriela Women’s Party expressed solidarity with the call for her release.