Caloocan inmates create rooftop vegetable garden

The Caloocan City Jail’s inmates no longer complain about their P50 daily food allowance – all they need to do is pick vegetables from the jail’s rooftop garden or get a few catfish from the fishpond beside it.

The vegetable garden and fishpond is the brainchild of jail warden Superintendent Lyndon Torres, who said the plants also serve to cool down the humid prison surroundings.

Prisoners are already benefiting from vegetables grown on the north side of the jail’s roof while on its southern portion, at least 560 seedlings are being cultivated.

Most of the northern portion of the roof is covered with soil and planted with sweet potato and okra. Beside the garden is a fishpond, home to more than 100 catfish. A bahay kubo (native hut) was also put up near the garden.

“It’s really beneficial for us since it creates a farm-like atmosphere and it’s quite relaxing, apart from the vegetables we harvested,” inmate Melchor Bagsac, 30, told The STAR.

Bagsac has spent seven years in the jail while his murder case is still being heard.

The 1,400 prisoners were given at least 30 to 40 saplings – mostly tomato, chili and eggplant – to cultivate daily.

“I would like to turn all the available portions of the some 200 square meter concrete roof into a garden, for it is beneficial to the inmates,” Torres, who has served as the jail’s warden for the past six months.

Torres is still collecting additional sacks of soil and pots for his project, which he said is slowly gaining recognition from some non-government organizations.

Jimmy Ayok, 50, the jail’s mayor, said the “vegetables the garden could offer are very valuable.”

Ayok is charged with kidnap-for-ransom and already spent seven years in prison. As mayor, he is tasked by Torres to maintain “cleanliness” in the jail and “order” in the crowded prison facility designed to accommodate only 500 inmates. – Pete Laude