THE ERICSON ACOSTA STORY | Running home, almost free
Text and photos by Elizabeth Lolarga, VERA Files
January 17, 2013

CALBAYOG CITY, Samar—Political prisoner Ericson “Eric” Acosta, who had long stopped counting the days he had spent in jail at this city’s sub-provincial jail in Western Samar, was sprung an unanticipated pre-Valentine gift on Thursday: The court allowed the poet-composer and former Philippine Collegian editor to leave jail on early Friday to fly to Manila on humanitarian grounds. (Acosta is expected to arrive in Manila at 8:15 a.m. on Friday at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 3.)

Chief Public Attorney Persida Rueda-Acosta (not a relative of the accused) quickly moved for Acosta’s temporary release before the Gandara regional trial court after a medico-legal consultant of the Public Attorney’s Office examined him and found he has nephritis, a condition characterized by blood in the urine (hematuria), lower back pains, high fever and painful urination (dysuria), all of which require urgent confinement.

The doctor, Erwin Erfe, was accompanying Rueda-Acosta on a medical mission to the jail and had gone over Acosta’s medical history.

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