BuCor’s Christmas gift: ‘Inmate-to-inmate’ visits

BITTERSWEET REUNION A detainee from the Correctional Institution for Women (CIW) hugs her ailing husband, an inmate of New Bilibid Prison (NBP), in a rare kind of reunion arranged by the Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) on Friday. Up to Jan. 1 next year, the BuCor is allowing batches from the CIW to visit their spouses or sons at NBP, all for humanitarian reasons and because it’s Christmas. —RICHARD A. REYES

The names of the inmates interviewed have been changed in this report, as per the media policy of the Bureau of Corrections (BuCor).

Upon entering the social hall of New Bilibid Prison (NBP) in Muntinlupa City, 45-year-old Marielle broke into tears as she saw her husband Rolando, 73. They were separated more than five years ago and now were finally having a reunion—but both still serving time in different penal facilities.

“Please look at me,” Marielle said, palming his creased cheeks, likewise damp with tears. They touched foreheads and noses as they tightly hugged, two orange uniforms for a moment becoming one.

Rolando had obviously grown thinner, his face bearing the sharpest change. They had been incommunicado since 2017; no letter came from the unschooled Rolando. So it came as a shock for Marielle to learn two days before Christmas that her husband had developed “bone cancer”—or at least that’s how he described the cause of his aching legs and knees.

“It’s painful for me to be unable to take care of him,” said Marielle, who was brought to Bilibid from the Correctional Institution for Women (CIW) in Mandaluyong City.

Unprecedented

Both serving life sentences for selling illegal drugs, the couple were among the first persons deprived of liberty (PDLs) who experienced something unprecedented in the BuCor’s history: Inmates being allowed en masse to visit loved ones held in another prison.

Thirty female PDLs from CIW traveled 30 kilometers to NBP on Friday to visit their husbands or sons in Bilibid. The women made up the first batch and more would follow as such “special visits” had been arranged up to Jan. 1.

“We want our PDLs to feel the spirit of Christmas, so they can also enjoy the holidays with their family even if it’s just for a short period of time,” BuCor acting Director General Gregorio Catapang Jr. told reporters who were allowed to observe Friday’s reunions.

“The physical presence of their family will give PDLs the courage to fully serve their sentences and maintain good behavior so that their release may be expedited,” he added.

He said it was the first time for the BuCor management to allow such “inmate-to-inmate” visits without being formally asked.

Under normal circumstances, inmates need to make a request and bear with a long process—sometimes taking years—to get permission for such visits. Most pleas are rejected.

Over the next eight days, the NBP social hall will be extra busy, with more than the usual number of monobloc chairs and tables, for bittersweet reunions like that of Marielle and Rolando.

Technically it is not a conjugal visit where some privacy is allowed. The meetings are confined to the social hall, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.

‘Best Christmas gift’

Another pair of drug convicts, Rose, 45, and Dan, 49, last saw each other in 2016, on the day they were pronounced guilty in court.

When they finally met, they barely touched the fried chicken and cake that Rose brought. Instead, they spent their limited time talking and catching up, in a tight embrace.

“Not seeing each other for six years, we’re too excited to feel hungry,’’ Rose said. “This is our best Christmas gift ever. I have prayed to God to let both of us see each other again, and this is the answer.”

They were sharing the table with another PDL couple, cybercrime convicts Windy, 35, and Eric, 41.

“We were convicted in December 2017, so that was a sad Christmas for us. I think this one is much better. We’re still in jail but we are together again,” said Windy. She and Eric were sentenced to a maximum prison term of 20 years.

Thankful to the current BuCor administration, she called the special visits “a once-in-a-blue-moon event.”

“We appreciate what the BuCor has done for us, for empathizing and for being mindful of how we feel and what will be good for us,” she added. “This kind of visit, where we are able to talk with and touch our loved ones, gives us a positive outlook. It gives us hope that the next time we are visited, we will be able to see our whole family again.”

Catapang, however, was not keen on extending the special visits beyond Jan. 1.

“It will be a violation of our own rules. This is just an exception to the rule for humanitarian reasons and in the spirit of Christmas,” he said.