Filipina writer still jailed
1985Nancy Gruber 1985-06Read it in the scan (PDF at ETOL), page 19 →
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SOCIALIST ACTION JUNE 1985 - 19 Mila D. Aguilar, Filipina poet, teacher, and journalist the apartheid regime. who was arrested with two companions in August 1984, remains in jail, after several hearings in January, while awaiting judgment from the Supreme Court.
South Africa."
Aguilar, Cynthia Nolasco, and Willy Tolentino were charged with "possession of Oakland, Calif. 94601. subversive documents, upon their arrest. A Queson City trial court ordered their release on bail, but the military presented the court with a Preventive Detention Action, a presidential decree that allows President Ferdinand Marcos to hold detainees without charges. Nolasco and Tolentino were released in January.
Opposition leaders have protested the continued detention of Aguilar as "a classic example of injustice under the Marcos regime." -And the Geneva-based International Commission of Jurists, at a recently concluded meeting of the U.N. Commission on Human Rights, referred to her case as an example of how preventive detention is used te circumvent the judicial process.
While in prison Aguilar has written a new collection of poetry, which was used as the basis for a celebration of International Women's Da: r in the Philippines. The following is one of those poems, entitled "Reply to a Short Note of Apparent Concern":
How many hours ago was it that this rose was but a bud grown to full bloom.
Ah, gone is the softness, the red has turned maroc Look now how the petals curl lip outward in a smile so very hypocritical.
See how its sepals droop, the stem itself withered by the weight of its crown's lost innocence.
Soon the mere rustling of some dirty monstrous hand nearby shall make its jaded petals fall.
The Committee to Free Mila Aguilar would like to enlist the help of Socialist Action readers in writing letters urging Mila Aguilar's immediate and unconditional release to: President Ferdinand Marcos, Malacanang Palace, Manila, Philippines.
The Committee is also asking for donations to be sent to: Committee to Free Mila Aguilar, P.O. Box 1726, Cambridge, MA 02238.
Mila D. Aguilar