Visit to The Makati City Jail

On Halloween day, I spent the morning at The Makati City Jail.  It’s just a few blocks from MC Home Depot in the Fort.  This is where people are detained while they are waiting for their day in court.  It’s a pity because some of them wait for so many years, it’s like they served their sentence already.  Then when the time comes for them to go to court, they meet their lawyers a few hours only before their trial

Yet it was nice to see that despite that, people here are trying to make the most of what they have

When you first enter, you see a nice christmas tree made from recycled plastic bags.  They celebrate early too like me 🙂

Thank you to my friend, Chary, for bringing me along with her.  For Chary this is a regular routine for her as she comes every week to tutor the detainees.  Thank you too to Bong Espenocilla, a detainee himself,  for touring us around and telling me about life in their place

A typical day for them 

Everyone is kept busy which is good.  I would not know how life is in a place like this but seeing all of them, it was nice to see some smiles on their faces and hope that maybe one day they will still have a life outside 

These are the old jail cells for solitary confinement but these are not used anymore nowadays.  This is where Ninoy Aquino and Serge Osmeña stayed during their stay here.  Now they are used for conjugal visits of spouses or just locked up and not being used 

They cook their own food 

They are a very religious community.  There are even volunteers who regularly visit, some even everyday to give spiritual guidance for them.  They have a grotto in the garden with a chubby Mother Mary 🙂  They are looking for someone to donate a Virgin Mary for their grotto.  I actually like their version because I find it unique and antique already 🙂  

Chary never visited the cells but this visit we went inside and we toured the male cells and they even serenaded us 🙂 They were very well behaved and the place was clean and neat.  There are around 400 plus male detainees 

And we visited the female cells.  There are almost a hundred female detainees, not as many as the males 

They have  many, many activities to keep them busy, who said life in jail was boring? Not here! 

Chary teaches up to 10 per class.  Since March this year, Chary and other volunteers with her – Jason Bangayan, Leah Puyat and Risa Garcia come over to tutor them for an hour.  Many of them don’t have highschool diplomas, so teachers from the Department of Education come twice a week to teach them and Chary and her friends come once a week to tutor them in preparation for the once a year test they will have to pass to get their diplomas.  

and boys have separate classes from girls, they are not really allowed to interact unless they have joint activities planned.  Chary told me that she used to teach them under the heat of the sun!  It’s a good thing now they have these huts where they can work in  

Thank you Chary for this very enlightening experience for me.  I will never forget this Halloween Day.  And Thank you to you and your friends for giving hope to the detainees who are wiling to learn and earn a highschool degree.  And maybe one day when they are free and can go out in the real world, they will be ready and able to do more for themselves and face a bright future  

[email_link]