Manila: More than 450 political prisoners joined 32 other detainees in a hunger strike that began on January 10, hoping that Pope Francis could intercede for their release and ask for the continuation of long-stalled peace talks between the Philippine government and 46-year-old Communist Party of the Philippines (CCP), sources said on Friday.

A total of 457 political prisoners started their hunger strike in detention centres nationwide late Thursday, when Pope Francis arrived in the Philippines. “They joined 32 of their comrades who began their campaign at Camp Bagong Diwa, a military base, in Metro Manila’s suburban Taguig last January 10,” Cristina Palabay, secretary general of Karapatan, a rights group, told Gulf News.

All of them have written letters to Pope Francis. “The letters were given to a bishop who was asked to give them personally to Pope Francis when he goes to the University of Santo Tomas on Sunday [January 18],” said Palabay.

“I hope the pope can intervene in behalf of the political prisoners and call on the government to continue holding peace talks with the National Democratic Front [NDF],” said Palabay. The NDF, the negotiating arm of the CPP and its military wing, the New People’s Army (NPA), and the government have been holding peace talks off and on since 1992. Formal talks stalled in 2011. “Government authorities have prevented doctors and relatives to visit the political prisoners,” said Palabay when asked about the condition of the 32 political prisoners.

All political prisoners vowed to end their campaign when the pope leaves on January 19.

Pope Francis will go to Tacloban City and Palo, Leyte on January 17.

Noting the experience of a political prisoner, one letter read, “Your Holiness may be able to help in pressing for the return of the lost freedom and other rights of political prisoners, and thus fully correcting such great social and political ills that have long been pestering our country.”

“We have been arbitrarily, unjustly, and illegally imprisoned, heavily restricted and gravely repressed behind bars, We have been asking people, various sectors, and your [religious] flock to come out boldly and in numbers as street fighters for change, as social-cause activists against poverty, corruption, oppression, human rights violations, and other basic ills in our society,” said another letter.

Photocopies of the letters were sent to the office of President Benigno Aquino, the International Committee of the Red Cross, and Archbishop Guiseppe Pinto, papal nuncio of the Vatican to the Philippines, said Palabay.

Meanwhile, relatives also pressed for the release of political prisoners.

Lydia Guray appealed for the release of her son Voltaire, a cultural artist, who was imprisoned for a trumped up case. Melcy Torres appealed for the release of activist Miradel Torres, who gave birth at Manila’s Philippine General Hospital early this year.

Nimfa Lazaras said her son Edward should be released since there was no warrant for his arrest when his companion, Andera Rosal, was arrested with a court warrant in March 2014. The daughter of CPP spokesman Gregorio Rosal who died in 2011, Rosal was seven months pregnant when arrested. She lost her baby in May 2014.

Nikki Gamara, 25, appealed for the release of her father Renante, a union organiser and NDF peace consultant, who was incarcerated in 2012,

“Pope Francis has interceded to have the remaining Cuban prisoners released from detention,” recalled Gamara.

Pope Francis has been credited for his role in the fruitful talks between the US and Cuba, both alienated for more than 50 years, which resulted in the release of two Americans from Cuban prison and three Cubans from American prisons in late 2014. Cuban officials promised in January this year to release 53 more political prisoners.

“The government denies the existence of political prisoners,” said Palabay. Since Congress repealed a law that criminalised membership with the CPP-NPA in 1990, authorities have been curtailing leftist critics of government with trumped up criminal complaints. allowing them to be imprisoned without charges with criminals.

“Many leftist leaders were arrested while serving as peace consultants of the NDF during peace talks with the government,” said Palabay, adding this should not have happened because the government and the NDF signed in 1995 the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantee, which gives peace consultants immunity from arrest.

The government and the NDF also signed the Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law in 1998.