Snakes in the jail

It’s a believe-it-or-not thing or an only-in-the-Philippines thing or both, but the recent revelation that there were horses and chickens and even snakes – reportedly pythons, no less – inside the New Bilibid Prisons compound here in my city is something else.

The horses are supposed to be used for training jail guards to capture escaping prisoners a la the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. These horses reportedly belong to the now suspended prison spokesman.

I don’t know if the chickens are to supplement the probably meager food supplies in the prison or, more probably, are fowl for sabong (cockfighting). I’d encourage prison authorities to allow prisoners to raise chickens and even pigs to add to their food stocks, and to give the PDLs productive and meaningful activity.

They should also start a vegetable garden in the open spaces instead of digging for treasure or building the deepest swimming pool in the country so prison officials can scuba dive…seriously?!

And then there are the snakes. Really, what can you say about snakes in the prison? Are they kept in the cells? Maybe these can be the pulutan for the thousand of cans of beer earlier discovered.

Figuratively, I’m sure many will say there are plenty of “snakes” not just in the NBP but in government. It’s weird, it’s funny, it’s ridiculous, but at the end of the day, again, the joke’s on us – taxpayers’ money wasted, our justice and penal system turned into a ludicrous drama. Kawawa talaga ang Pinoy. – Timmy Reyes, Muntinlupa City