On Friday, November 3rd, about a dozen people visited the Philippines embassy in Kensington Palace Gardens to highlight the case of the Sagada 11.

These are 11 young Filipinos involved in projects such as Food not Bombs and Earth First! and aged between 15-25, who were arrested on February 14th this year whilst hitchhiking to the Sagada mountains area to go hiking. They were brutally arrested without a warrant, taken to the station and tortured, and only found out later that they were being charged with involvement in a communist guerrilla attack on a military outpost a few days before.

They were not allowed to contact anyone, and have been held in terrible conditions, without even basic necessities or enough food in overcrowded cells. The two youngest have been released due to their age, but despite the communist guerrillas themselves declaring no connection with the young people and no evidence being presented, the others are being held in legal limbo without knowing when they will actually come to trial.

The Filipino embassy is actually on Crown Estate, i.e. gated and protected, but people managed to walk on in. Some went inside the embassy and spoke to the Minister Consulate about the case, while 13 armed police removed people outside.

International support could make a huge difference to these kids. Spread the information, and support them directly too – for more info contact  solidarityssp@lycos.com

Write to Darwin Algar, Cell 1; Rundren Lao, Cell 3;Jefferson Deal Rosa, Cell 3; Metro Villegracia, Cell 4; Neil Russell Balajadia, Cell 5; Ronron Pandino, Cell 8; Arvie Nunez, Cell 8; Aldous Christian Mafosa, Cell 9; Anderson Alonzo, Cell 12;

c/o Jail Warden James Simon, Benguet Provincial Jail, Justice Hill, La Trinidad, Benguet 2601, Philippines.