A different kind of Christmas, unusual gifts for political detainees

A CHRISTMAS card illustrated by the author and sent to the Inquirer: Optimism and cheer behind the barbed wire.

For political prisoners, celebrating the season of Yuletide and New Year does not only mean receiving Christmas gifts from loved ones and visitors and partaking of the usual holiday fare on tables groaning with the season’s favorite dishes.

As victims of political repression, political detainees in military camps all over the country—354 at last count, including 33 women—together with activists and advocates of social change, this time of the year is the period when they not only mark the Christmas season but other important dates like the International Day for Political Prisoners, International Human Rights Day, the anniversary of the reestablishment of the Communist Party of the Philippines and the dawn of the New Year.

Struggle

But what keeps them busy is a flurry of activities to celebrate victories won in their years of continuing struggle.

These activities not only serve to boost their spirits but also as venues to bond with other detainees, and link them up as well with advocates of human rights, justice and freedom outside their prison cells.

More important, these events prepare them for bigger struggles ahead.

For the past several years, at chosen dates during this period, political prisoners at the PNP Custodial Center in Camp Crame would gather their ranks and join other fellow detainees, their loved ones and other guests for day-long political, cultural and other activities that include reciting poems, singing songs and performing musical numbers or indigenous dances.

Two years ago, a painting contest with a freedom and human rights theme was held as a consciousness-raising and information effort.

Sufficient time is also given for meaningful political discussions on current national and international issues, developments and perspectives in the struggle for liberties and freedoms.

Because of their limited resources, political prisoners are not able to give gifts as much as they would like to, so they make do by crafting hand-made cards that show not only an artistic bent but carry meaningful messages as well.

Victories

In their remembrances of things past in 2011, they  recalled a year of victories, early Yuletide “gifts” received  at the PNP Custodial Center in Camp Crame, Quezon City.

All the more reason for them to celebrate the year as it ends, even if the more elusive freedom of all political prisoners still has to be won.

Some of these “victories” came in the form of  positive action as a result of protest letters, exposés, collective work and meaningful dialogues with custodial center officials. These include:

No more day-long padlocking of cell blocks during non-visiting days.  Detainees can now exercise, engage in sports, tend to their plants and mingle with prisoners  in other cell blocks during the day, before their cells and cell blocks are padlocked at night.

No more late night intrusions of prison personnel, who either barge in their cells after these are already  padlocked, rouse them from sleep in the middle of the night, conduct arbitrary searches and abuse them at whim, or take out female nonpolitical detainees to entertain them late in the night.

No more forced labor and related abuses like subjecting them to verbal abuse, or ordering them to clean police barracks and toilets. Instead, on a voluntary basis, detainees have organized themselves to clean not only their own premises but areas where they can receive visitors.

Complaints against two ranking police officials who were implicated in the commission of these acts led to their relief from their posts.

Respect

Detainees have remarkably won not only the respect of prison authorities—who have responded to the complaints with clear, decisive action—but also the guards who interact daily with them.

Small and insignificant as these may seem to others, these are “gifts” hard-won and much appreciated by this tiny community which not only has to struggle with the day-to-day but with larger issues as well.

The quest for justice and freedom is much bigger and more formidable, and they still have a long way to go.

Camp Crame political detainees, for instance,  have formally requested various government entities and human rights groups for a joint investigation of prevailing cases of unjust, arbitrary and illegal arrest and detention.

For now, they have gained a number of palpable, albeit not “complete” victories.

But these are enough to build on as the year ends and they look forward to more and bigger victories ahead.

The author, a consultant of the National Democratic Front, is currently detained at the Philippine National Police Custodial Center in Camp Crame, Quezon City.