Behind Bars*

The term “bilibid” has a negative connotation. Ordinarily, people would think of it as a nasty place where brutish individuals are confined. The bars serve as a big wall that separates the prisoners from the rest of the world. This wall does not only create a physical separation; it also creates a metaphysical separation – a separation wherein people behind bars try to change their lives so that the rest of the society would accept them as renewed individuals, while people outside prison would look at the prisoners as “bad people” who have no hope of changing for the good. The bars, therefore, signify the limitation of freedom, not only of the prisoners, but also of others as their thinking is limited by certain prejudices.

The trip to “bilibid” is an eye-opener. It makes me feel privileged and chained at the same time. I consider myself as privileged for not being in prison and for not being subjected to a situation wherein I would resort to the commission of crimes. I am blessed for being able to obtain good education, which qualifies me to obtain a good-paying job. Hence, the thought of violating the law would not come to me as an option just to earn instant money. I am also blessed that the Supreme Being gave me a family which embraces morality; hence, I was not exposed to a community that resorts to crimes as means of living. I am privileged because I am not being locked up in a place away from the people I love.

However, I am also chained. I am chained by my view that I am lucky – because I am not. I may be an educated person, but I am not educated as to prisoners’ lives and quest for a new life. I am chained by the view that the prisoners are there merely to serve their punishments and to be isolated from the rest of the society. It never occurred to me that they are there to be reformed. Prison, for me, is a means used to bring justice – to punish one ought to be punished. This view of justice is, however, one-sided. This sense of justice is only for the injured party; but not for the prisoner. To bring justice to the prisoner, he has to be treated as human, not as a mere property who would be locked up for the injured party’s satisfaction. A prisoner must be looked at as a human being who errs but changes if given the chance to. He has to be given with the opportunities necessary to live a new life.

The trip to bilibid made me realize that I had prejudged the prisoners. The sad thing, however, is that one trip is not enough for me to fully understand the life of a prisoner. I am not even sure whether it is enough to free me from chains of prejudices. It made me realize a lot of things. It gave me awareness as to a big problem of our society – the discriminatory nature of the rest of the world towards prisoners. But awareness is not enough to effect changes. Awareness is not enough to solve the big problem. There has to be a conscious action on my part to be of help in solving this problem of ours.

In “Veronica decides to die,” a novel by Paolo Coelho, there are those who preferred to stay in a mental institution even though they are not mentally ill. Their argument is that they can become their true selves in the institution. They do not have to fit in with the standards the outside world created. This might also become the problem of the persons behind bars. In prison, they are given attention that they need. They are considered special. Their talents, intelligence and good conduct are being recognized. Hence, they can evince the good side of them. When they leave the prison and face the outside world, they will be faced with discrimination. People who do not know what they’ve been through would think of them as mere convicts who do not deserve to be given jobs. This might result to a sad possibility that ex-convicts resort to committing crimes so that they will be able to earn money; or to another sad possibility that they commit crimes so that they will be sent back to Bilibid where they are given appreciation.

Education is one key to obliterate the discriminatory nature of people towards prisoners. People have to be informed of the lives of prisoners behind bars. Once educated, there has to be a collective action on the part of the people to help the prisoners. This might be through creation of livelihood programs for the ex-convicts; or drafting of a law that would establish schools in prisons, or a law that would be beneficial to ex-convicts. Unless the society is given proper education as to this problem, we are behind bars. And if we do not act now to solve this problem, we will remain in chains.   

* One of the reflection papers I made as part of my internship in the OSG (Summer, 2011).