Manila jailbirds dream to be PH’s next Pacquiaos

SPARRING INMATES Detainees at the Manila City Jail train during the boxing clinic which the detention facility conducts every Friday. GRIG C. MONTEGRANDE

THE WORLD’S next boxing phenomenon could be one of the pugs inside Manila’s own pound.

At least 31 inmates at the Manila City Jail (MCJ) have been given a crack at achieving their dream to be professional boxers under an innovative rehabilitative sports program within the capital’s prison walls.

MCJ warden Senior Superintendent Ruel Rivera told the Inquirer that the boxing program, which the detention facility started last month with the Philippine Sports Commission (PSC), had helped detainees channel their aggression to something positive.

“Boxing is more on discipline. Before we started the clinic, we held a seminar where it was explained to the inmates that the sport is not about hurting each other nor is it purely based on energy and stamina but is more of skill,” Rivera explained.

“In boxing, you should be disciplined. You do not just punch. You use your mental capability and control your temper,” he stressed.

Before the program started, detainees had small skirmishes over the most trivial matters.  “They have learned to internalize discipline. Punches thrown are intended for sport and not for a fight.  They have learned that there is a right time to use your fists.  The program has been a big help in terms of instilling discipline among them. ”

<strong>Less conflicts</strong>

Rivera pointed out that the stress levels of the detainees have been reduced considerably and that their aggressiveness have dwindled causing less conflicts among them.

Jail guards help ease the tension and establish camaraderie with the inmates by joining the boxing program as well as the other sports activities inside MCJ, including basketball, volleyball and board games.

According to Rivera, the boxing program was conceptualized after they noticed that crime incidents were almost nil whenever Saranggani congressman and pound-for-pound king Manny Pacquiao had a scheduled bout.

“There is hardly any crime when Pacquiao has a scheduled fight.  The same thing applies here at the MCJ.  The inmates always have something to look forward to, particularly our weekly boxing clinics,” Rivera smiled, adding that the detainees could apply the sports discipline they have learned once they regained freedom.

“They have been reformed in a way and could easily be reintegrated in mainstream society,” he stressed.

Eduardo Elizalde, 29, a lanky detainee,  who has been at the MCJ for a month for illegal possession of firearms, told the Inquirer that he had long dreamed of becoming a boxer and following in Pacquiao’s footsteps.

“It is only here (MCJ) that I got a chance at receiving professional training. I have been watching Pacquiao since he was an amateur.  This (boxing clinic) would be a big help for me to avoid vices.  I could even earn from boxing (as a profession),” he revealed.

Elizalde added, “Maybe this is the opportunity that I have been waiting for. Maybe this will help me change my life for the better.”

Breathing heavily after a three-round sparring session with a fellow inmate, the muscular 27-year-old John Celerio nicknamed “Tyson” because of his dark skin and bulkiness told the Inquirer that the boxing program had helped distract other detainees from fighting among themselves.

As soon as the MCJ announced the weekly boxing clinics, he immediately signed up.

“I have been boxing since I was 13 years old. I usually fought in bouts organized by the barangay during fiestas,” he revealed. After he was arrested  for robbery and detained at the city jail, he said he only stayed inside his dormitory until the MCJ started the boxing program.

“I have something to look forward to every Friday. I train inside the dormitory and teach other inmates boxing basics to pass the time,” he grinned.

During Friday boxing clinics held at the MCJ basketball court, other detainees, who have not signed up for the program, join in on the sidelines. Most of them mimicking the exercises being taught by Amateur Boxing Association of the Philippines (Abap) representatives, including Barcelona Olympics bronze medalist Ruel Velasco and Doha Asian Games gold medalist Joan Tipon, to 31 inmates who have volunteered.

MCJ Inmates Welfare Development Office (IWDO) head Chief Insp. Hector Elizares said the  program was voluntary. “They are free to join if they want to,” he said.

He said that the 31 inmates, who joined the program out of more than 3,800 detainees, are real boxing aficionados. “Probably for some of the inmates, they have to see first how well our intention is for them before they join in.”

Elizares said the PSC had donated boxing gloves, helmets and other sports equipment for the jail’s sports rehabilitation programs.  The commission has also agreed to help organize a boxing tournament for the participants of the program, complete with professional referees and a ring to hold a bout in inside the MCJ.

<strong>Female inmates too</strong>

PSC executive assistant Albert Almendralejo, who introduce the program to the MCJ, revealed that even female inmates of the jail have joined the boxing clinics.

The clinics for the detainees in the female ward are facilitated by Philippine women’s boxing team members Analisa Cruz and Rica Aquino although their version is more on fitness rather than fighting inside a ring.

Almandralejo told the Inquirer that the PSC got the idea of the boxing program from a gold-medal-winning Thai boxer who admitted he used to be a former prisoner in Thailand.

He said that the commission immediately thought it could also happen here, that a boxing talent could just be in one of the country’s detention centers.

He first introduced the boxing program to the Calamba, Laguna, jail in November last year and the MCJ is the first detention center in Metro Manila to implement the program.

“What the PSC and the jail basically want to achieve here is conflict resolution, a sports-for-all program, and talent identification,” he pointed out.

The qualifying rounds for  the competition among aspiring boxers inside the detention facility has been slated next month where there will be five weight categories: the 45-kg, the 48-kg, the 52-kg, the 56-kg, and the 60-kg divisions.  The finals will be held in June.

“There will be cash prizes for the participants.  I even heard one of the program volunteers comment that he could use the money to post his bail,” Almandralejo said.

Most of the inmates stay inside the MCJ because they don’t have money to post bail while some had to wait years for the resolution of their cases in court.

“At least with the boxing program, they have something to look forward to every week… I do not know where this will lead us but the main thing is to give them the semblance of hope,” Almandralejo said.