The Philippine Online Chronicles

The palace legal team will forward their review of the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) memorandum on the “Morong 43” case to the president later this week as part of a commitment a palace official made to supporters of detained health workers Monday morning, reported GMAnews.TV.

“I told them that we are currently reviewing the memo of Secretary [Leila] De Lima and within the week we will be sending it to the President," said Senior Deputy Executive Secretary Jose Amorado.

The Office of the Executive Secretary and Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Eduardo de Mesa are currently reviewing the memo, according to Amorado. He declined to disclose any of the recommendations because the memo is confidential.

The 43 health workers were arrested in a military raid last February 6 while conducting a seminar in a rest house in Morong, Rizal where authorities confiscated several arms and two improvised claymore bombs from the site.

Supporters of detained health workers the “Morong 43” sat down with Amorado Monday morning nine months after the group was originally arrested.

Members of the Free the 43 Health Workers Alliance and relatives of the Morong 43 met with Amorado around 10 a.m. at the Malacañang Palace Social Hall.  The government previously turned down five requests from the group to meet.

The group’s supporters have repeatedly called on President Benigno Aquino III to free the workers by ordering the DOJ to drop the charges of illegal possession of firearms and explosives against them. Supporters of the Morong 43 have upheld that the arms and bombs were planted and denied that the “Morong 43” were communist rebels.

“At least 36 of the relatives of the ‘Morong 43’ remain hopeful that President [Benigno] Aquino [III] will finally heed their plea to immediately free their loved ones,” said Carlos Montemayor, Free the 43 Health Workers Alliance spokesman to GMAnews.TV before the meeting.

Arroyo has previously stated that he would leave the issue to the courts but has hinted that the DOJ memo indicates that security forces did not have authority to arrest the health workers.

Calls for their release have grown after President Aquino granted amnesty to 300 soldiers who were charged with court mutiny and other rebellious acts, and the president’s support for the release of political detainee Aung San Suu Kyi in Myanmar.