Folsom Prison Blues

I went to jail on Sunday. Well I tried to go to jail, but they wouldn’t let me in.

I went with Rev. Rey and some other PCPR supporters to go visit some political detainees at the Cebu Jail. To enter and visit a prisoner, you have to come of visitation day, have already requested permission to visit, and have a signed approval. I helped type out a letter to Gov. Garcia-Cordilla to ask such permission, and the letter returned with an official governor’s stamp. When we presented this letter, however, we were told we weren’t allowed to enter and that our request was denied.

How many people try to get into jail? And please don’t reference that silly drama television show to me; it doesn’t count. The depressing thing was that while Rev. Rey was arguing with a ranking officer of the PNP, I was reading over the rules for visitation. It says that you must be a relative and you cannot exceed six visitors. We were seven, and I certainly wasn’t even the prisoners third cousin once removed, and certainly didn’t look it. I was a little upset, well actually sincerely disappointed that we were barred from entrance. The saddest part is that the prisoners are there under false pretenses. Their reasons for incarceration are bogus, and the PNP and the government aren’t exactly “following the rules” of those people’s rights. Yet they fully had us on “the rules” for visiting the prisoners. Isn’t it sad that contradiction and hypocrisy? I mostly felt for the detainees.

We were able to visit another detainee who had been transferred to Central Command, where he was basically in solitary confinement, as he was the only prisoner being held there. He is still under the incarceration of the Cebu City Jail, but he has been moved because he was overly complaining about the conditions. Now, since his meals must come from the jail, he sometimes doesn’t eat because they forget to bring him his food.

As we were leaving, I was surprised to hear that this detainee had been arrested for being a part of the NPA and that he actually was. It was a weird feeling to actually have been in the presence of someone in that group, since normally they’re just talked about. They’ve become more to me a ghost story from the government that a real thing, but I guess it does really exist.

So that was how I spent my Sunday.

Today I’ve been getting ready for the JAC conference in Bohol and seeing my two fellow Western Visayas interns. Surprisingly and happily so, Debo arrived this morning in Cebu and came with me to attend a press conference for KARAPATAN and PCPR against the ASEAN summit. Quite exciting. I think it might be on the news tonight.

And as a final laugh at myself for the day, I went on my own to the post office, which should be just one jeep ride there and one back. However, I managed to get on the right jeep going the wrong way for my trip home and managed to end up halfway across town. The great thing is that I realized my mistake before too long because I’ve finally gotten my bearings in the city. I got off, crossed the street and got on another jeep. In totally the trip home costed P12 for my blunder, which is less than $0.25, which is much cheaper than the P50 (or $1) cab ride that would have taken care of the directions for me. That makes quite a difference here on my budget and I am proud of my persistence in getting home and learning a valuable lesson in asking the direction before I get too lost (I don’t even know where we were going!).

And as a final high note, speaking of the post office, I received a wonderful package of Christmas music and twizzlers today. So I am quite the happy soul. I’m just really thirsty now.

Peace, I hope