Nasino asks SC to reverse CA ruling on separation from child

Detained activist Reina Mae Nasino on Tuesday asked the Supreme Court to reverse the decision of the Court of Appeals that upheld a lower court ruling that she be separated from her child River just weeks after she gave birth.

Nasino lost her child to illness after being separated from her.

In her petition, Nasino appealed to the high court to recognize that women had a right to breastfeed.

 She said the high court should recognize that the tragedy she and her baby experienced could happen to other detained women who are pregnant or with newborn children. She cited the case of activist Amanda Echanis who was with her one-month-old child when she was arrested and jailed. Nasino asked the high court to reject the appellate court’s decision.

On Oct. 12, Nasino appealed to the appellate court to reverse a lower court ruling a few days after River’s death. But the appellate court denied her petition for being moot and academic because her baby had died.

Asserting that her case was exempted from the moot and academic principle, Nasino urged the high court to overturn the appellate court’s decision, to reinstate her petition and to remand it to the appellate court for further proceedings, or “take cognizance” of her high court petition and resolve it on its merits.

Nasino accused the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology and the Manila City Jail Female Dormitory of violating her and River’s constitutional right to health by “willfully denying her the right to breastfeed.”