Zamboanga Sur prisoners: Making coffins was our best Christmas gift

ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines –Forty-one year-old Emilio Fuentes tried to control his nerves as he hammered down nails to keep two slabs of wood together. His hands trembled as he tried to focus on finishing his first carpentry job — a coffin.

“My heart was breaking while I was making the coffin,” said Fuentes, a prisoner facing double murder charges at the Zamboanga del Sur Reformatory Center in Barangay San Jose, Pagadian City.

In his mind, the images of Tropical storm Sendong’s devastation of the cities of Iligan and Cagayan de Oro made him weep as he tried to finish two coffins in four days.

Fuentes said he had relatives on Fuentes Street, Barangay (village) Saray in Iligan City, “and this is the only Christmas gift I can give to them.”

The thought of giving to those in need “pushed me to finish two or three coffins,” he added.

Florencio Cruzado, another prisoner, said he “had to learn how to make coffins” as his contribution to those who lost their loved ones in the flood.

“It pains me to see what happened to the children, to the elderly who were not able to survive,” Cruzado said.

In prison for murder the past seven years, Cruzado said the sight of dead bodies of children reminded him of his own child.

“I really miss my little one,” he said.

For Cruzado, being in prison while the snail-paced hearings of his case drag on for years was better than that of the Sendong victims. “I still have a chance to get out of prison; they  don’t,” he said.

Fuentes and Cruzado are among the 50 prisoners who made the 108 coffins that were delivered by Zamboanga del Sur Governor Antonio Cerilles to Iligan City on Wednesday.

The prisoners said at first they were scared of making coffins.

“We were told that we will be allowed to be out of our cells to make coffins for four days. We thought the coffins were for us,” Fuentes said.

“And it was the first time prisoners were asked to make coffins,” Cruzado said.

Traditionally, prisoners make Christmas decorations, lanterns, and furniture — not coffins.

Cerilles said initial discussions among local officials and Jaycees members were focused on the provision of medical help, food stuff and relief assistance for the flood victims.

“But when we learned that there was a shortage of coffins and formalin, we immediately alerted all our organizations here, including the LGU, to produce coffins and deliver them to the nearest city, Iligan,” Cerilles said.

“Sino ba naman ang hindi magtutulungan kundi tayong magkakapit-bahay (Who else should be helping each other but us neighbors)?” the governor said of the creation of Tabang Silingan (Help Neighbor) Operation.

Benison Mahawan, Jaycees vice president for Western Mindanao and legal officer of the provincial government, said other chapters were tapped to provide the materials for the coffins that the prisoners were to make.

“Most of our prisoners are talented in carpentry and handicraft,” Mahawan said. “And we made sure that those who worked were known to be of good behavior. Mahirap na, kasi  we have requested for them to work outside their respective cells for four days,” he said.

Morbid as it may sound, for Cruzado and Fuentes, the coffins were “the best Christmas gift we can give.”