.my elusive piece of mind

BILIBID EXPOSURE TRIP

wow! its been months and months since my last blog. Im not a "bloggy" person anyway.

Just the other day we had an exposure trip. it was EXTRAORDINARY!! It is something i would want to do again. Unforgettable and Moving!

The experience broke common misconceptions about prisons and the people behind bars. For some reason, i prefer to call those men INMATES rather than PRISONERS or CRIMINALS. I also believe that not ALL of them deserves to be there. Its sad to know that a big percentage of the them are victims of injustice & poverty. We went to the MEDIUM SECURITY area of Bilibid. The place was like a subdivision, a mini town. They had day care centers, elementary, high school and college. Around the compound were men walking in BROWN shirts. This color code actually meant that they are soon to be released. So, thats YAY! for them.hehehe...RED shirts = maximum security and if im not mistaken, BLUE = medium security. We also learned that UST offers modular class to the inmates. Thomasians in Bilibid! hehehe...

We were welcomed by such warmth by the inmates. They are really talented - they can sing, play the drums, bass, lead, keyboards, trumpets, they can act and DANCE like pros! The inmates' appearance is the complete opposite of what many of us were expecting. Usually when we think of men behind bars, they are war freaks and they look like goons. The host of the day was an inmate as well. I didn't think that he was until he introduced himself and mentioned that he is an inmate. I was surprised, probably because he looked very proper and he spoke Tagalog/English well. Judgmental huh?!

I was really impressed with them and i admired them so much. Lunchtime was also interaction time. Each of us had an inmate buddy, kuya Jonathan was my buddy. We were made to sit face to face, our chairs just a few inches apart and have lunch together. When they sat on their chairs, I noticed that most of them had smiles on their face. And  then i came to know why...it was because they were excited to interact with us. They said that it is rarely they have people from the "outside" come and visit them.

It wasn't scary at all. In fact, it was interesting more than anything else and overwhelming. Kuya Jonathan was sentenced to 16 yrs imprisonment and he's got 10 more years to complete. He's 27 years old and he hasn't heard anything from his family for over 2 years now. His family cant afford to travel all the way from Bohol to Muntinlupa so thats one barrier to their communication. It is sad..really. Kuya Jonathan is current;ly studying in 2nd yr highschool and an honor student as well. Even though I dont know him, i feel proud of his achievements. It is good to know that at least here is a place where people are given another chance in life.

We were only allowed to go to the MEDIUM SECURITY area but we saw the MAXIMUM SECURITY campus (on the outside). It is surrounded by a very tall wall all-around and the explanation to that according to our guide is that it was built that way to prevent the inmates from seeing the "outside world". This is because in the Maximum Security, the sentence are for lifetime and for some, Lethal Injection. It's complete isolation.

I really hope we get a chance to go back there. UST should continue to organize exposure trips such as the Bilibid Trip because it helps people to view life from aother perspective. It was educational as well.

I had fun. I enjoyed their company.