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| Mario de los Reyes |
(First of two parts)
The unprecedented visit to prison by the acting secretary of justice Emmanuel L. Caparas got the adrenaline flowing, and raised hopes anew for applicants in this continuing transfer saga.
Getting the secretary to meet us all the way from Manila for the sole purpose of giving light to our many unanswered inquiries with regard to the moribund issue of prison transfer is quite a coup. Thanks to our unassuming Consul General, Bernardita Catalla, for making this possible. How I wish she had been posted here much earlier.
I may not be able to avail of this transfer anymore if it comes to fruition, but self satisfaction will surely warm the heart of so many who lend their support in pursuing this elusive issue. Much gratitude to Fr. Jun Jacobe as well, for initiating a signature campaign that reached those in the corridors of power, and served as a catalyst for them to take action.
Upon arriving at the prison’s main gate the secretary was met by the chief superintendent of Stanley Prison, together with his aides, and was accorded all the respect and protocol befitting his office. He was taken on a brief tour of the prison facilities and I am pretty sure that he was impressed by how well inmates in the city are humanely treated. But what he saw could maybe cause him to think twice about implementing the transfer considering the state of our penal institutions back home.
While waiting for the allotted time for his meeting with us, various thoughts were playing in my mind concerning the purpose of his visit. Foremost among these is if the visit had anything to do with the forthcoming elections back home.
Everyone knows that whoever is in office during an election is always at an advantage for they have full access to the resources of various government machineries to conduct a well-oiled election campaign. Bearing in mind that the election period was well underway, I could not help but wonder if the visit was a publicity stunt to help prop up the chances of the administration bet who according to news reports is lagging well behind in various opinion polls.
In the latter part of our meeting with the secretary, I posed the question of his visit’s timing, and for speaking my mind I got a mild reprimand in the form of a tactfully worded reply: “I did not come here for politicking”.
It is worthwhile to note that the Arroyo administration grudgingly signed the implementation of procedure in her last days in office, after years of neglect. It seems to me that passing the buck to the incoming government is an ongoing pattern.
From the very outset the TSPA had been fraught with problems. The agreement was in force without an implementation procedure in place, showing a lack of wisdom and attention to details by the drafters. Worse was the false hope given us that a transfer was imminent. That so battered our morale that serving our sentences had become even more difficult.
The secretary was with the Consulate’s assistance to nationals’ staff when we entered the designated meeting place and after the usual pleasantries we got on with the discussions. We opened the conversation by asking the oft-repeated question of why, after so many years of it being enforced, the transfer was not being implemented? Taking into account that all the our documents were in place and the transferring party had no objection to our application, and in fact was even helping us in urging our government to carry out the repatriation, why was it still stalled?
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One of our most erudite contributors has sent us this article, which was again painstakingly handwritten in his beautiful cursive style. Mario de los Reyes, who has been in Stanley Prison for more than 20 years, writes here of his impressions from the recent visit to inmates by the Philippines’ acting justice secretary, Emmanuel Caparas. Though wary of the visit, Mario is still hoping it could finally pave the way for the much-delayed implementation of the Transfer of Sentenced Prisoners Agreement between the Philippines and Hong Kong, something he has been fighting for in the last couple of years. Elsewhere in the issue, readers will find a picture of Mario, together with Consul General Bernardita Catalla and a prison chaplain, during an awarding ceremony in Stanley on Jan. 6. –Ed
