Out comes our cuckoo’s nest

One of the “Big” movies of my generation was the 1975 film “One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest” starring Jack Nicholson where he plays a scheming rebellious inmate trying to feign mental illness in order to qualify for hospital detention instead of hard labor. As the story develops we meet all sorts of prisoners and mental cases whose lives are in the hands of an iron-fisted nurse who controls their very lives and manipulates their behavior for her personal satisfaction if not pride. The movie is both triumphant and heart breaking as it shows the depth of depravity, rebellion and unbending spirit of human beings even those labeled as mentally ill.

After watching bits and pieces of the congressional investigation on the illegal drug trade inside the New Bilibid Prison and the allegations that then Justice Secretary Leila de Lima was involved or directly benefitted from the corruption within the NBP, I could not help but realize that the NBP has become our “Cuckoo’s Nest” that we all ignored, refused to acknowledge, or simply treated as the “dog house” for criminal “animals” that we left in the hands of people with no choice but to run it or were strangely willing to take it on. Yes, Art often imitates life and that is what we now experience.

We Filipinos did not want to know the state of affairs inside Bilibid. We really did not care or consider that many of the “animals” therein would have to be released one day. The only time most of us got upset were during the times we learned that a number of them could go out on short trips, still lived in comfort or had more privileges than ordinary citizens. We never even imagined that by locking them up and throwing away the key, we actually gave them the perfect lair to manufacture the deadliest weapon they could create which was “shabu” and would sell it in large scale in order to get back at their victims, Judge and Jury and the rest of the Philippines. If what we heard in Congress is all true, those we trusted or voted for are in fact our enemies who are far worse than the “animals” we locked up at the national penitentiary!

Most if not all of the “discoveries” made in Congress during the last two days is nothing new and I am certain that a stream of proposed legislation will come out of this very public hearings, but I wonder how much effort will be channeled towards making all Filipinos understand and appreciate the value of reformation and restoration of criminals. Will the Congressional investigation focus purely on hunting down the handlers, operators and beneficiaries of the illegal drug trade inside Bilibid and taking down Senator Leila de Lima? Right now, they are only investigating the illegal drug trade. Will they eventually look into the alleged business of “killers for hire” where stone-cold assassins inside the NBP are hired out to kill politicians, kidnap people etc? 

Will these unfolding events and learning expand into studying and investigating the state of affairs in all other prisons, as well as our collective attitude towards prisons, management and treatment of prisoners? Punish the guilty yes, but the way things have been going at the Bilibid tells us that the “regular” prisoners there are being exploited and punished twice. If nothing comes out to improve their situation or the system then the on-going legislative inquiry would fall very short of the finish line.

After everything we have seen and heard there will certainly be no quick and easy solutions. But what seems to be common to all is the need to break up the “national penitentiary” into regional penitentiaries. It has become clear that while everyone is pointing the finger of blame and judgment on corrupt prison guards, most of us never knew that “prison guards” were paid poorly and treated differently from the rest of the “uniformed services.” We all assumed that they were part of the salary standardization or at par with cops etc. considering all prison guards all over the world live under constant threat of violence and the reach of criminal elements on the outside. 

This realization brings to the forefront the undeniable need to properly invest in correctional facilities and by regionalizing them, the inmates would have the benefit of being near relatives which makes imprisonment  humane and democratic instead of anti-poor. By reducing or minimizing prison populations, running such facilities become much more manageable than the idea of breaking up gangs or state sponsored multiplier forces from among the prison population.

For far too long Filipinos have been like the mythical three monkeys who “See no evil – Hear no evil – Speak no evil” in relation to prisons and penitentiaries, but we now have that rare opportunity to open our very own “Pandora’s Box” and confront all the evil and injustice that has been bred and raised in our prison system. It is time for us to admit and confess that our sense of righteousness as a society against criminals eventually got the better of us and transformed our view from righteousness to revenge. In seeking “Justice” we have, as a society become inhumane and indifferent, forgetting that prisoners are also people and created in the image and likeness of God. Perhaps this is why the curse of drugs and corruption has been visited upon us from the very prison or cages we built for prisoners who we have treated as animals.

Like Pandora’s box, the Congressional hearings will bring out many evils inside the NBP, but hope remains if we all make a personal decision to allow forgiveness and compassion to grow in our hearts and minds concerning prisoners. There will be much to hope on if we all come to an agreement that it is about time to “care,” to be “concerned” for our fellow human beings and fellow Filipinos and prod the government and lawmakers to include better “Correctional or Reformatory facilities” in our infrastructure program. Otherwise the “animals” we keep tied and in a cage might someday manage to bite back. Even worse if we begin to behave worse than the “animals.”

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