Prison Cebu Philippines dancing. A prison where they dance...
A year ago engineer Yuri Kirdyushkin was detained at the Manila airport on suspicion of transporting cocaine. The Russian is still in a local prison - the Metro Manila District Jail - where he is awaiting a decision on the preliminary investigation. If convicted, the maximum punishment that Yuri faces is life imprisonment or the death penalty if the moratorium on it is lifted in the Philippines.
AiF.ru correspondent recorded Yuri's story about the life of a Filipino prisoner, cellmates, diet and pogroms in prison.
Background
Last year my friend Ivan asked me for one favor: to help his friends from Thailand. It was necessary to go to Peru, bring from there to Bangkok a folk medicine - essence from a cactus - for which friends paid for flights and accommodation in Latin America and South-East Asia. Ivan then told me that he had already traveled along this route, there was nothing criminal about it. I have known him for a very long time, and I had no reason to doubt his sincerity. At that time, I worked as a senior manager of the sales department in a research and production enterprise in St. Petersburg. My responsibilities included sales foreign clients. The salary depended on sales volume, and the sudden offer seemed attractive; there was an opportunity to see the product markets from the inside and establish contacts with potential clients. I saw my own benefit in this proposal. However, doubts still crept in. True, when I expressed them to Ivan, he made it clear to me that the tickets had already been purchased and if I now refused, I would have to return the money for them: 100 thousand rubles. And I flew.
In Peru, I met a woman who gave me several boxes of commercially packaged food and two bottles of syrup. I saw exactly the same products with the same logos in local stores, so it didn’t even occur to me that there was anything criminal about them.
A few days later, from Peru I went to Bangkok via Dubai and Manila with stops in several cities in Brazil, but did not reach my destination: I was detained in Manila. When I saw my suitcase on the luggage belt, it was opened and wrapped with tape. I still don’t know whether it was opened with witnesses and video recording, as required. As a result, it turned out that there were 8 kilograms of cocaine in my suitcase. Although, before arriving in Manila with all its original contents, my luggage was subjected to thorough searches in three international airports Latin America. No illegal content was detected there. At the same time, two Chinese citizens were detained; they also had drugs in their luggage, a total of about 19 kg.
I tried to find Ivan so that he would come to the Philippines and act as a witness in my case, but no matter how hard my family tried to find Vanya, he disappeared.
A fifty-meter cell contains 70-80 prisoners. Photo: From personal archive
About the conditions of detention
From the airport I was taken to the PDEA detention facility, where I was held for a month and a half. There, in a cell with an area of 35 square meters. m, I was with 65 prisoners, some of whom were carriers of tuberculosis and HIV.
A month and a half later, I was taken to the city prison in Pasai District with a density of 90 people in a cell with an area of 40-45 meters, and only from there another week later - to the Metro Manila District Jail, where I am still staying.
There are several barracks here, each with 10 cells. Chamber area - 50 sq. m, and there are 75-80 prisoners in it. To ensure that everyone fits into such a small area, special structures are equipped inside the cell: metal corners with partitions that divide the room into rooms. This results in a two- or three-level system. More or less people fit, but still on top of each other. Many people sleep in the corridor, in the passage between the cells. There were times when there were more than 90 people in the cell. It’s good that there is a fan, it accelerates the air, and there is something to breathe. As soon as you move away from it, you immediately feel the humidity and it becomes heavy.
To understand how life is in such conditions, I’ll tell you what happened this summer. The hottest time of the year here is from March to May; the temperature does not drop below +30 degrees, on average +35 degrees during the day. At this temperature, the transformer substation often fails, fans and lights are turned off. And you find yourself in complete darkness in the steam room: the temperature in the chamber is +50 degrees, high humidity and literally you can’t breathe. We didn't have electricity for two weeks. It is very difficult to convey in words what it was: the skin was covered with some strange blisters, and I was in such a state that I did not understand what was happening. Then the prison management opened the barracks at night so that people who were really in trouble and who were older could sleep outside, on the ground.
How does a prisoner's day work?
The rise begins early in the morning, at 5:30, when the gates of our barracks open and prisoners can get out into the territory and walk for an hour. Of course, this is if you were able to get out of your cell and make your way through the bodies of prisoners lying on the floor and hanging in hammocks along the corridor.
At 6:30 the food service begins; we don’t have a specially equipped dining room; we eat right in our cells. After breakfast, the rounds begin: the guards come, close the barracks, and count the prisoners. At around 8:30, the barracks are reopened and the prisoners are free to do whatever they want until 15:00: they can spend time in the cell, or on the premises. But it’s hard to be outside: prisoners usually cook food on an open fire in the yard; they often use plastic to light it. You go outside and find yourself in a smoke screen. I prefer to spend time in my cell: I have a hut on the third level, I am more or less fenced off from my neighbors. Here I read, write, communicate with my family when possible. Only a few people surf the Internet because it is very dangerous: a phone in a cell is considered contraband. If caught, they will at least be sent to an isolation ward for two weeks, or at maximum, they will be transferred to a more restrictive pre-trial detention center.
At 15:00 the guards come again: they close the barracks again, count the prisoners again, and then open the gates again until 19:00. Then they drive us back into the barracks and close the door. The next and last recount of the day is at 23:30, then lights out. And so every day in a circle.
There is a library with a good selection: many books on technical disciplines, management, finance, and languages. I have about 20 books of my own, I recently re-read The Brothers Karamazov, and I constantly read the New Testament. I also have the Bible in English.
IN free time You can also play sports, there are basketball, volleyball courts, gymnastics grounds, where there are homemade dumbbells, barbells, etc.
Most of the arrests are people associated with the distribution and use of drugs, as well as suspects in kidnappings. Photo: From personal archive
About cellmates
Mostly my cellmates are people who distributed or used drugs. Here these substances are called shabu, in our country they are called amphetamines. Most of them are young people from poor families, people from rural areas. In the cities, they took low-paid jobs as taxi drivers or street food sellers, and to maintain the energy to work 18-20 hours a day, my cellmates began to consume shabu. As a result, they were caught by the so-called “death squads” operating since last year as part of the anti-drug campaign President Rodrigo Duterte. These guys did not resist the “death squads”, so they ended up here, and those who did were killed. Locals say the number of arrests in the Philippines has increased fivefold since Duterte took power. When I was brought here, there were 1,800 people here, and six months before that there were 600. There are a lot of “dummy” cases here, and this is now becoming clearer more and more often; people began to be released in batches.
The second most popular crimes are kidnapping cases. There are a lot of police officers passing through them, I share my hut with a cellmate who was just a law enforcement officer. There are also four Indian citizens in the cell with me; they have a “family matter”: they kidnapped their wealthy uncle and demanded a ransom, but the uncle was able to get out and run away, and sued them. As a result, the entire extended family was arrested.
People here are divided by status. For example, if you are able to contribute to the common fund an amount equivalent to 10 rubles a day, then you are exempt from mandatory cell work. There are a lot of people here, and periodically you need to wash, sweep, paint, take out the trash, clean the toilet and fill the barrels with water. All these works are distributed among cellmates, but those who are able to contribute money to the common fund are exempt from them. Since I am a foreigner, I was immediately offered to sleep in a separate hut and make contributions to general needs in exchange for exemption from cell work. I agreed, but in general, cleaning the cell does not represent anything criminal, it is the same thing that we do at home. On the other hand, if everyone cleaned up, there would be no common money, and they are a very important part of the existence of our team: very often we need to share expenses.
Both locals and foreigners are kept in the same cells. In addition to the Indians and me, there is also a Dutch citizen here, he entered just the other day. The only ones who live separately are the Chinese, they are in a privileged position. It is believed that these are people involved in syndicates for the production and distribution of shabu. They have a separate barracks, and, as I understand it, everything there is for money, even to go outside you have to pay. In our barracks, for example, there are 10 cells, each with at least 70 people, so there are about 700 people for the entire barracks. There are less than a hundred prisoners in the “Chinese” barracks.
The population of the barracks differs not only in social and national status, but also in sexual orientation. There are male people here who do not hesitate to wear skirts and dresses and make themselves something like artificial breasts.
About attitude towards foreigners
I am not the first nor the last foreigner here. Relationships are built not based on nationality, but, as in any team, based on how you express yourself. Let's say visitors came to you and brought a lot of food, simply because they come once every month or two. And it seems to the cellmates that they brought so much to the foreigner, but we have nothing. And there is always tension in the air. When a prisoner shares food, the prisoners immediately understand that the person is adequate and sympathetic. They see that you eat the same food as them.
The guards are also nice when they see that you have no contraband, they understand that you normal person, a hostage of the situation in which you find yourself, and you are not part of a syndicate, a mafia.
For the most part, people here sympathize, treat you humanely, understanding that it is very difficult when your relatives are 8,000 kilometers away from you.
About pogroms
HIV-positive prisoners are also kept with us, everyone knows about it. They are isolated only if the disease reaches an extreme stage. They don't always return from there.
You can also easily get drugs here; prisoners use them to forget themselves and get stupefied. As a result, once a month one or two people in each barracks die from overdoses.
People are dying from tuberculosis, dying from murder. The prisoners kill each other. The territory of the camp is divided between various groups, within which there are their own laws and rules. And, if a conflict begins between groups, it’s wall to wall, with stones, sharps, etc. There was such a pogrom when we didn’t have light for two weeks, then two people were killed. I saw all this with my own eyes, thank God, I managed to stay away from it.
After this, the administration strengthened security: they welded additional bars, conducted training for security guards, and also replaced equipment that was constantly breaking down. There was a power failure, there was a pogrom with casualties, but the leadership remained in place. They simply referred to the fact that the equipment could not withstand the load, the heat, but in fact the management did not want to pay debts for light and restore the equipment.
About the Philippine judicial system
In general, the Philippine penitentiary and judicial systems are in a state of disrepair. Here, you can wait 10 years for a decision on your case. And it may turn out that the verdict will be acquittal. Imagine, a man sits for 10 years, awaiting trial, and they tell him: “That’s it, go home, you’re innocent.” I saw people here who spent 8 years in a pre-trial detention center, they were acquitted. Due to the very limited number of employees in the courts. They receive little money and work very slowly. Let’s say that a prisoner does not have the opportunity to hire a private lawyer, he ends up with a public lawyer, who has 200-300 prisoners under his charge. Each judge handles up to 5,000 cases.
Thank God, the Russian consulate began to take an interest in my case and I have my own lawyer.
About the language barrier
I communicate with my lawyer in English. About a third of prisoners, especially older generation, speak English very well. These are people whose parents remember the times when the Philippines was a US colony. But the younger generation, these guys from low-income families, don’t speak English at all.
As for the Filipino language, in everyday moments I already understand everything that people want to tell me. I understand what is written where. I can tell where I come from, what my name is, how old I am, I can count to five. But I don’t feel like speaking this language.
Those who do not have enough space in the cell are forced to sleep on the floor in the corridor. Photo: From personal archive
About the prisoner's diet
The prisoners are fed three times a day. Breakfast is brought to us at 6 am. Most often it is porridge on rice, it can be sweet or regular, with some kind of beans that are similar in taste and consistency to corn, but it is definitely a legume. Sometimes they give you rice with chocolate, called chapurado. This dish is more or less tasty, you can eat it. They also often bring boiled noodles in meat broth. I can't eat this for breakfast at all.
Lunch starts around 10am. First, the rice is served separately. This rice itself Low quality, sometimes it comes with sand. The fact is that the dishes are prepared in a small kitchen, and 2,500 people need to be fed. Most likely, there is simply no time for processing rice and culinary delights.
The third time is fed at 16:00. They may give you a ready-made dish, or they may give you raw fish. Curiously, we are not allowed to eat food from tin cans, because they can be used to make a pointed object. But a gas cylinder, which can also be dangerous, can be easily purchased at a local cooperative store. It is, in fact, where raw fish is cooked. For money you can afford anything.
Returning to lunch: cook fish either in soy sauce or vinegar. They deliver it almost every day. For lunch they can also give vegetables with meat or chicken broth: there is such a jackfruit here, big vegetable, I’ve never seen it live, the taste is something between coconut and cabbage. The second type of stew - National dish"banana heart" is an unopened banana flower, similar to big berry in appearance and consistency - like cabbage. It is chopped and boiled in chicken broth with the addition of coconut milk. It tastes very exotic. Between 16-17 hours, as at lunch, we first get rice, then stew. It happens that they bring a clear broth, and there is something chopped in it, they call this “something” papaya, but it does not at all look like papaya in our minds. This is a vegetable between cucumber and zucchini, which is cooked with rice noodles in fish broth.
I think our entire diet is designed for the minimum calorie requirement for an adult. But when you've eaten last time at 17 o'clock, and lights out is closer to midnight, then in the evening you already feel hungry again.
About visitors
Provisions are brought to me by visitors: people whom I did not know before. By some miracle, the Adventist community learned about me; we call them Seventh-day Adventists, Protestants. In the Philippines there is their international university, and with it a small Russian community. One day she came to me family of Kamil Yalishev. They brought me food and things. At first it seemed to me that this was all somehow strange, suddenly some people found me and came to me. I thought they were connected to the people who brought me here. And then I realized that all these were my prejudices and that my new acquaintances were simply friendly and open people. It is their custom to visit people in pre-trial detention centers and colonies who have no other visitors once every month or two.
About rethinking values
When I found myself in an isolation ward, in a foreign country, and went through everything that I told, I realized how important it is to just stick with each other, your loved ones, and even be able to talk in native language. Of course, I'm lucky, I use the phone, I communicate, but I don't want to bother my friends. I thank God that I have a lover who is always in touch and keeps in touch.
When I see news from home that one person beat another to death, it seems to me that people simply have not experienced something truly deep, do not understand the true threats and the cost of life. I would like to wish people to put themselves in the shoes of others and value each other.
On the island of Cebu there is a maximum security prison that houses the most dangerous criminals in the Philippines. In 2004, there was a riot in this prison, as a result of which a sufficient number of people were injured, but despite this, it was not easy to calm down murderers, rapists and drug dealers.
As a result, the riot was suppressed, and the island authorities, in turn, decided on a very unexpected prison experiment.
The new manager of the Philippine prison, Byron Garcia, having secured the understanding and support of the island's governor and his sister in one person, created a completely new prison of a completely different type. Today, the Cebu prison is not only a unique experiment for correctional organizations, but also one of the main features and attractions of the island.
In the Philippine prison Cebu, prisoners every day... Dance! These are dances of 1,500 prisoners with synchronized movements clearly practiced over dozens of rehearsals. The imprisoned dancers needed an additional incentive - spectators, so after the opening of the new dance prison, visitors began to be allowed here! At the entrance there is a sign asking everyone to hand over their weapons. Even the guards walk around the prison without firearms, since the level of violence has decreased so much that it is no longer necessary.
The late Michael Jackson is a favorite musical artist all prisoners. The repertoire of prison dancers in most cases consists of his composition. IN in this case we can safely talk about the high cult of personality of Michael Jackson. The songs are also quite popular famous group Queen.
The recidivism rate after release from Cebu Jail is minimal and truly approaches zero. Many say that completely different people emerge from these walls into society. The prison director himself, and now the governor's security adviser, Byron Garcia tries to give an opening or ceremonial speech at every concert.
Adds entertainment to dancing Orange color clothes. Now tourists from all over the world come to watch the mass dance at Cebu Prison! Thanks to YouTube videos, the prisoners have become so popular that small groups of dancers now take part in official Philippine government events. The first video received over 35 million views! Guest Filipino stars also take part in the performances alongside the prisoners.
A year ago, a video was shot for Michael Jackson's song "Thriller" in the Philippine prison Cebu, which took fifth place in Time magazine's top ten Viral Videos and was viewed more than 14 million times on YouTube. The main choreographer of this production and the dancer in the foreground is Travis Payne. The dance is competently and professionally choreographed, filled with interesting directorial ideas. And despite the fact that it involved great amount dancers, they all coped with the task perfectly.
“Michael saw the prisoners dancing and he really liked them. He watched the video between rehearsals and really enjoyed it!” - says Travis Payne. That is why, after the death of the great musician, the choreographer decided to fly with two guys from the backup dancers to a Philippine prison and stage new dance, in which he will take part maximum amount prisoners. Interestingly, it took only one day to implement the conceived idea.
On this moment Byron Garcia's invaluable experience is being actively studied in other countries. The director of the Philippine prison Cebu has cherished dream— to spread such dance prisons all over the world, because looking at the faces of dancing prisoners, it is simply impossible to recognize them as murderers, rapists or drug dealers...
Yesterday we visited penal colony O. Palawan (Philippines) called "Iwahig". This “institution” is located 17 km from the city of Puerto Princesa. The peculiarity of this colony is that prisoners of light and medium regimes live, work and move freely around the territory of the village.
White Beach
On the way to the colony, we stopped at a beach called "White Beach", probably because white sand around.
We met one of the inhabitants of the local flora and fauna
And they set off along a long, terrible road several kilometers to the colony itself.
Iwahig Colony
Just imagine, dozens of prisoners walking around a vast territory, practically left to their own devices.
They say that they are not fed on a schedule, they must earn their own food - by growing rice, fruits, etc. Or, making money from tourists like us, dancing to them and selling souvenirs made with their own hands.
I must say that the locals greeted us quite friendly, curiously asking what country we came from and how we like the Philippines. Quite funny guys.
But not all prisoners can walk freely. For maximum security, there are separate buildings surrounded by barbed wire, where entry is strictly prohibited. As we approached the fence, we heard shouts of welcome addressed to us, as well as the sound of a basketball sword hitting the asphalt. Apparently, everything is not as dreary as we thought; even in prisons you can find a basketball court.
Well, you can check off another attraction of the island of Palawan. Personally, I found the place rather boring and uninteresting, but what did I actually expect? Fighting without rules on the street?
The guide said that there was a swimming pool nearby pure water, where we can swim. We jumped on our motorcycles and hit the road.
Balsahan Natural Pool
I completely forgot that the roads in the Philippines don’t matter, just like in Russia. Therefore, here you must definitely take a bike that can ride smoothly over bumps and potholes. Some kind of Honda WRX at least (semi-automatic). But you can do something higher, especially for off-road use.
We had a class S stool that bounced so much that every time I swore never to ride it out of town again.
A few more kilometers off-road and we were greeted by a “Welcome” sign
An interesting pool, built along the flow of a mountain river, looked very clean and... cold. This is not for you to swim in the sea!
“A staircase leading down to the pool?” - No, have not heard.
From blows on fresh water My ears felt terribly stuffy and water seemed to seep straight into my brain. There is a noticeable difference after sea salt. Someone jumped up and left, complaining of a headache... Maybe it was even me, I don’t remember
Monkey for dinner, sir?
When we were getting ready to leave, the locals offered to roast... a monkey for us. As it turned out, these were prisoners and they really earn their dinner as best they can.
500 pesos (~700 rubles at that time) for a monkey and they are ready to cook it in at its best.
The vegetarian part of our company immediately opposed such abuse of animals! Of course, the poor baby was kept in a bag tied with a rope.
We managed to bargain for half the price and, having taken the monkey, we decided to go in search of the nearest veterinary store. It’s good that there was a crocodile farm along the road where they also kept monkeys.
Farm employees agreed to accept the animal, feed it and care for it. And we were allowed to visit him at any time, even giving a certificate that the cub was accepted from our hands for the maintenance of the organization.
It seems to me that prisoners do this kind of trick all the time. It is unlikely, of course, that they eat them. Most likely, they are simply caught in order to sell it to tourists like us, with the expectation of their kind heart and love for your smaller brothers.
Nevertheless, with a feeling of accomplishment and the thought of a good deed done, we went home.
So another sunny day passed on the wonderful island of Palawan for me and my bride.
They are happy, smiling, singing and dancing - prisoners of a provincial prison and rehabilitation center in the province of Cebu, Philippines, - shining example rehabilitation through art.
(Total 18 photos + 2 videos)
1. The prisoners of this correctional institution became famous when in 2007 a video of them dancing en masse to the song “Thriller” hit the Internet, which had 50 million views.
2. Prison director Byron F. Garcia - heir to one of the most powerful political families in the Philippines - came up with this idea when he was looking for a way to keep his prisoners healthy in body and spirit.
3. Songs and dances are an integral part of Philippine culture, so when Garcia relied on mass participation, when hundreds of people merge in dance unity, he was right.
4. Once the video for "Thriller" hit the Internet, he quickly decided to use other hits in his rehab program, including "In the Navy" and "YMCA." And more and more prisoners began to take part in these mass dances.
5. There is a small women's section in the main prison, and women are also allowed to take part in dances. However, some female roles the productions are performed by men who are not averse to dressing up.
7. Moreover, Garcia and his workers were accused of forcing their prisoners to take part in these dances, not disdaining to use brute force as an incentive.
8. During the interview, Garcia and his prisoners unanimously denied these accusations, but that being said, what else could they say?
9. At first glance dance program Garcia has certain reasons: the prison is overcrowded, and the prisoners have to tolerate each other, which few people know about.
10. In 2007, more than three hundred prisoners were awaiting trial for murder. The gangs they ruled in the outside world flourished in the closed atmosphere of the prison.
11. Garcia needed to end these groups inside the prison so that the prisoners could start life with clean slate when they were released. Not in the Philippines death penalty, so most of the prisoners in these photographs will eventually be released.
12. And yet, it is surprising to think what the reaction of suicide bombers in, say, the United States would be if they were told that they had to take part in something like this.
13. The idea of a prison director was quite fragile at first. Many workers were suspicious of the scale of the event. And the prisoners didn’t like the idea of wearing dancing shoes. One choreographer was beaten for his ridiculous shoes.
14. However, in the end, the idea grew stronger under the leadership of the director and his assistants, and although the first rehearsals took more than one day, after six months the experiment was a success.
15. Speaking of shoes, there were rumors that many prisoners who had to rehearse for hours in nothing but prison sandals complained of pain in their feet; However, when the video was released in 2007, it became a huge hit, leaving many scratching their heads in bewilderment at the result of Garcia's experiment.
16. It must be admitted that the spectacle of 1,500 prisoners dancing in unison could not fail to create a sensation on the Internet, especially considering the advertising campaign of the owner of YouTube, where all this was posted.
17. Row after row of prisoners in bright orange jumpsuits with capital letter P (from the word Prisoner - prisoner), dancing in one breath in one harmony - what a spectacle! It is not surprising that since then tourists began to come to the prison to see for themselves. famous dances. Visitors can take photos with inmates and buy T-shirts to commemorate their visit. The rehabilitation program began to generate income, but, of course, we should not forget about the original, highly moral goal of the program.
Tourists are allowed there, probably to brag: look, prisoners can not only sit in cells, here they live like human beings in such beauty! Only if you dig deeper, then this whole veil for tourists falls away and is exposed true life in a Philippine prison. Natural selection leaves only the very strong... or the cunning ones alive.
Beautiful mountains, river, waterfalls... All this is the beauty of a prison under open air on the island of Palawan. Here prisoners live for years and even decades. Tourists are allowed there, probably to brag: look, prisoners can not only sit in cells, here they live like human beings in such beauty! Only if you dig deeper, then all this veil for tourists falls away and the true life in a Philippine prison is revealed. Natural selection leaves only the very strong... or the cunning ones alive.
It was interesting for me to look at the life of Filipino prisoners. Over the years of working on TV, I visited three Ukrainian colonies: a children’s colony, a women’s colony, and a men’s colony, where there is a strict regime and life prisoners. As they say, there is something to compare with...
A striking difference is already upon entry. We and two more of our friends, Masha and Sergei, calmly drove into the prison territory. You just had to sign in some book, indicating your data there. The guards didn’t need our passports, and they weren’t interested in what we were taking with us either. Signed - move on! Let's go straight, there's only one road. Along the way there are beauty and rice fields. Remember them well. They are very important in this post.
The road forked several times. They turned at random. As a result, we came across a small settlement. A couple of houses, families live. Quite friendly, like all Filipinos.
Inside, the house turned out to be a storage room with a bed. A tiny dwelling, it’s just and it’s unclear how they all fit there?
But there is a rooster, I don’t know whether it’s a fighting rooster or for soup...
Their wives and children live with the men in prison. The toys are simple, some kind of springs, pieces of plastic. Arinka became interested in a girl of the same age and prison gadgets.
When they saw that I was taking pictures, they brought the baby: take it as a souvenir...
We had 2 cartons of cigarettes with us. In prison, this is a basic necessity, since there are no prisoners without tobacco addiction. Khodorkovsky doesn't count. They gave the men a pack each, they were happy.
Many locals from Puerto Princesa come to the prison. For what? Swim in the Iwahig River. On the territory of the colony it forms small cascading waterfalls. We got to them too. This is the first place where they charged us to enter. As much as 10 pesos per person ($0.25).
Arinka and Sasha immediately began to have breakfast. In nature, everyone has a good appetite.
Filipinos go to the river not only to swim, but also to eat delicious food. They rent such huts, barbecues and cook barbecues for the whole company. I wouldn’t mind spending a day in prison like that either.
Well, when will thrash start, you ask? Be patient, to understand how bad it is here, you must first realize how good it is here.
Having gone back a little and turning onto another road, we soon found ourselves in a large prison village. Life is in full swing here. If you don’t know where it was filmed, you’ll never think it’s in prison.
Does this building remind you of anything? A house from American westerns! Such color!
Sorry, I couldn’t resist, I was being an idiot. I like this house better this way. How intriguing is it, what's inside?
Inside is a workshop where prisoners make souvenirs and wood crafts. The things are very beautiful, not only tourists buy them. Our friend Hector has a wooden carved chest of drawers, bought in prison.
Well, we have come to the moment in this story when readers suddenly stop envying the Filipino prisoners... The next building - the punishment cell - I only managed to photograph once. After that, I was strictly forbidden to film there.
There were a lot of people inside. They all crowded around the bars and asked for cigarettes. This is where our two blocks, purchased before the trip, came in handy. I managed to click on the sly.
Sasha and Sergei went to distribute cigarettes. And a man came up to me and guiltily asked if I still had a pack? Of course there is. We don’t smoke, we brought cigarettes to distribute. So why not him? We started talking. The guy's name is Gulermo. He has been in prison for 19 years, and in a year he will be released. What did you do wrong? At the age of 17 he killed a man.
In general, if it weren’t for Guillermo, then everything here would seem like a sanatorium. But this guy told us things that made us realize that our prisoners live much better.
At first about the punishment cell: 150-160 people are constantly there. There are no beds, no chairs, and air conditioning is out of the question. There is not enough space for everyone, they sleep in “valets” on the floor, and feed hordes of bedbugs and other insects. You can get here for any offense. The worst thing is if they catch you with a bottle. Among other things, for drunkenness a year is added to the sentence.
Job. Gugliermo is a supplier, bringing pens and papers to his superiors. Lucky, he says. Helping in the kitchen or making souvenirs is considered a good job. But the hardest labor is for those who work in the fields. On rice plantations they work knee-deep in water in the heat of the day and in any rain. Everyone has wounds and ulcers on their legs... You can’t run away from work. There are machine gunners standing around the perimeter, one step to the left, one step to the right - they shoot without warning.
Gugliermo says: " A lot of people die here, you can’t even count how many.” We understood that they simply weren’t given much treatment here.
I have no reason not to believe this man. Although, experience suggests that prisoners tend to push for pity. Some even feed on these emotions. Well, even if it's only a half-truth, it's still scary. Where are all these human rights activists - Amnesty International and others like them, who take such care of our prisoners?
Well, I don't want to end like this. Admire the demob house. Those who will be released in two weeks are placed here.
And this is a church. The imprisoned Filipinos are as devout as the free ones.
We left the prison as easily as we entered. I didn’t even have to register anywhere. Well, now we know why there is such formal security here: step left, step right...
