Political detainee support group Kapatid’s spokesperson has urged the Congress and the Department of Justice (DOJ) to conduct investigations on the Bureau of Correction (BuCor)’s “permanent ban” against her.
Following the jail bureau’s decision to prohibit her from visiting jails, Fides Lim said BuCor’s punitive action and gross lies against her must be urgently investigated and the ban overturned.
“This ban on me is not about ‘maintaining order’ but a deliberate act of reprisal intended to silence criticism, punish the truth-teller, and deflect attention from institutional abuse, neglect, and starvation behind bars,” Lim fumed.
WHAT WENT BEFORE: Kapatid reveals harassment from jail officials
Lim’s alleged violations
BuCor in a statement Monday said the ban on Lim, effective April 29, is due to “repeated violations of corrections protocol and unruly behavior.”
After investigation and based on testimonies, BuCor claimed Lim showed “repeated instances of defiance, arrogance and disruptive conduct towards corrections officers, including high-ranking officials” in her visits to the New Bilibid Prison.
BuCor said Lim refused to observe queuing procedures and meddled with visitors to get ahead from the others who came before her.
The political detainee’s rights advocate refused to follow protocol on bringing in of medicines; disregarded parking rules and regulations inside the prison camps; refused to be frisked; and threaten to sue all personnel if they insisted on frisking her, BuCor claimed.
Lim also disregarded security protocol by causing an interview of a person deprived of liberty (PDL) by the De La Salle University School of Law which was not included in her approved request for food donation and distribution, the agency said.
BuCor director general Gregorio Pio Catapang Jr. in his defense of the ban stated: “There are procedures to follow when visiting a PDL, and we treat everyone the same. No special treatment; all are equal.”
WHAT WENT BEFORE: Political detainees’ wives reveal humiliating strip search at Bilibid
‘Absurd lies’
Lim however said BuCor’s claims are “as absurd as citing a parking violation for a vehicle that merely unloaded heavy boxes and left.”
She said her every action inside BuCor jails has been “principled, lawful, and rooted in moral duty to support political prisoners.”
She said that her visits to political detainees — many of whom are abandoned and rendered invisible – have followed basic procedures, such as submitting formal requests and complying with inspections as well as refused frisk searches.
“What I opposed — rightfully — was being brought into a closed cubicle without witnesses for an illegal and degrading strip and body cavity search,” Lim said.
The human rights defender said while she urges the Department of Justice to lift the ban and investigate BuCor’s actions, Congress on the other hand must launch a legislative inquiry on the bureau’s “authoritarian practices masquerading as security policy.”
She said she welcomes the BuCor’s statement on her ban if only to open the door to deeper scrutiny about what’s really happening inside the NBP and other BuCor jails.
Lim‘s complaints include:
1. Lack of due process in banning visitors, impounding humanitarian aid especially food and basic amenities, and the treatment of visitors and human rights advocates.
2. Failure to comply with human rights standards, including the United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners (Mandela Rules).
3. Use of public funds in relation to discriminatory and inconsistent procedures that violate the rights and welfare of PDLs (persons deprived of liberty), especially the right to survive in dignity.
4. Retaliatory actions against humanitarian workers and whistleblowers.
Lim said her ban follows the same pattern of obfuscation and retaliation.
“The BuCor’s claims of ‘arrogance’ and ‘disruptive conduct’ are smokescreens to divert attention from the immediate real issues,” she said.
WHAT WENT BEFORE: Bilibid officials refusing food delivery to PDLs
The Kapatid spokesperson listed the issues as follows:
- “Humanitarian aid is being blocked. Donations of two rice cookers and a water dispenser requested by elderly and ill political prisoners have been impounded since October 2024. That rejection is now being cynically used as grounds for banning me. I even had to appeal to those close to Gen. Catapang just to get two electric fans approved so political prisoners could sleep through unbearable heat.
- “BuCor’s leadership is inconsistent and arbitrary. Gen. Catapang himself ordered my ban lifted on September 5, 2024 during the congressional budget hearings. Yet BuCor now cites questionable incidents from before that date to justify a new “permanent” ban—revealing not a coherent policy but a pattern of politically motivated flip-flopping.
- “Internal records contradict BuCor’s narrative. The NBP Maximum Security compound approved the October 24, 2024 visit of De La Salle University law students. That the NBP Medium Security Camp commander blocked it highlights the BuCor’s internal disarray and selective enforcement. The visit was entirely lawful, based on a Supreme Court memorandum directing law schools to provide free legal assistance to the marginalized, including PDLs.
- “Erasure of political prisoners. The BuCor’s claim that “all PDLs are serving sentences for crimes against the state” is a dishonest denial of political prisoners. At the heart of my banning is the BuCor’s refusal to recognize the existence—and injustice—of political imprisonment.
- “Public shaming and privacy violations. Without due process or notice, my photo was posted at the Correctional Institution for Women, violating my constitutional rights, the Data Privacy Act, and basic standards of decency. This action endangers me and aims to intimidate others engaged in humanitarian work.
- “Preventable deaths under BuCor watch. Political prisoners Rommel Arquillo, 47, and Sonny Tambalque, 65, died within 55 days of each other in April–May 2025 from treatable conditions like TB and hypertension. Yet no forensic autopsy was performed on Arquillo despite a DOJ-UNODC-UP memorandum mandating autopsies in inmate deaths.
- “Double standards in detention. Political prisoners endure harsher conditions while a “VIP” or Very Important Prisoner” like Gen. Jovito Palparan—a convicted kidnapper whose victims, two UP coeds, remain missing—is held in Minimum Security instead of Maximum Security.
- “Refusal to dialogue. Despite repeated letters from Kapatid, the current BuCor leadership ignores our request for dialogue—unlike constructive talks we’ve had with the BJMP under Gen. Ruel Rivera, various wardens, and even former BuCor chief Gerald Bantag.”
“The BuCor must be investigated for repeated violations of law and basic rights. I am not a criminal. I am a human rights advocate, the wife of a political prisoner, and a citizen exercising my constitutional right to speak, to question, and to act—as anyone should when confronted with cruel and degrading treatment of human beings,” Lim said.
“If this is considered ‘unruly,’ then perhaps we need more ‘unruliness’ in the face of cruelty disguised as order,” she added.
Meanwhile, the Student Christian Movement of the Philippines (SCMP) expressed support of Lim as well as “disgust” over BuCor’s decision.
“We do not believe that this is a cause of ‘violations of protocol’ and ‘unruly behavior’ but deeply politically motivated especially under the worsening conditions of human rights under the Marcos Jr. administration,” SCMP chairperson Kej Andres said in a statement Monday.
“We urge the Department of Justice to lift this unjust ban on Lim. They should check their double standards where high-profile human rights violators and criminals such as Gen. Jovito Palparan, guilty of the disappearance of UP activists Karen Empeño and Sherlyn Cadapan, have allegedly been receiving VIP or “Very Important Prisoner” treatment,” the faith-based youth group added. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)
