Reina Mae Nasino urges SC to rectify ruling that separated her from River

More than two months after she lost her infant child to illness after being separated from her, detained activist Reina Mae Nasino on Tuesday argued before the Supreme Court that women had a right to breastfeed.

Nasino, in her argument, asked the SC to recognize that the "tragedy" she and her baby, River, experienced could happen to other detained women who are pregnant or with newborn children, citing the case of activist Amanda Echanis who was with her one-month-old child when she was arrested and jailed.

In particular, Nasino challenged a Court of Appeals (CA) ruling which upheld a trial court's decision that she be separated from River just weeks after she gave birth.

She had turned to the CA on October 12, a few days after River's death. The CA denied her petition for being moot and academic because her baby had died.

Arguing her case was exempt from the moot and academic principle, she asked the High Court to reverse the CA's decision, reinstate her petition, and remand it to the CA for further proceedings, or "take cognizance" of her SC petition and resolve it on the merits.

Nasino, through her lawyers, alleged that the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology and the Manila City Jail Female Dormitory (MCJFD) violated her and River's constitutional right to health by "willfully denying them the right to breastfeed."

She added that the trial court judge who handled her case "sanctioned these constitutional violations" by refusing to let her stay with her baby because the MCJFD supposedly had no facility for newborn children.

Philippine law and international organizations such as the United Nations and the World Health Organization recognize the right to breastfeed. The BJMP itself has a policy on breastfeeding.

"Petitioner is pursuing this action not just to attain justice for the untimely loss of her three-month-old daughter River Emmanuelle, but also to vindicate the rights of other PDLs — pregnant and nursing mothers — who may have experienced the same cruelty of being separated and prevented from and breastfeeding their children," Nasino's counsels at the National Union of Peoples' Lawyers said.

"More importantly, Petitioner is trying to prevent the grievous, unconscionable and irreversible damage of depriving the newborn children of nursing PDLs of nature’s best immunity at a time, which may lead to their serious affliction and even death," they added.

The NUPL earlier asked the SC to dismiss Judge Marivic Balisi-Umali for her order to separate Nasino and River. Umali inhibited from Nasino's case -- illegal possession of firearms and explosives -- in August. — DVM, GMA News