Monday, December 17, 2007 Editorial: Restoring justice
SOMETIMES, all it takes is just one accident—a slip of judgment, a change of posting—to make and unmake one’s life.
For Joseph (not his real name), it was stowing away in the wrong ship. When his parents separated and abandoned him, a neighbor took the six-year-old to Zamboanga.
After eight years, though, Joseph yearned to go home. Without fare money, he stowed away.
But instead of taking him back to Jolo, the ship landed him on the shores of Manila and a life of living by his wits to survive the asphalt jungle.
At the age of 14, this child of the streets committed a crime and was erroneously jailed with hardened adult criminals at the New Bilibid Prisons.
For Father Victor Labao, being posted in Cebu could not make him shake off a conviction formed after nine years of service as chaplain of Bilibid: livelihood opportunities to ease former convicts into a better, more responsible life beyond bars was urgently needed but often tragically unmet.
Second chances
By his conservative estimate, Fr. Vic says there are about a thousand former convicts supervised by the Board of Pardons and Parole for a maximum of two years before they are released from this supervision to become free individuals once again.
Coupled with recidivists (offenders who slip back into a life of crime), there are approximately 1,500 ex-prisoners “free” to integrate back with society. “Have they succeeded?” Fr. Vic answers himself by enumerating the tough corners and undersides of Cebu’s mean streets.
Three years after his Cebu posting, Fr. Vic and supporters set up the PSP Center for Restorative Justice Advocacy. Believing in “Pag-asa sa Paglaya (hope in freedom),” the advocates initiated the PSP Multipurpose Cooperative, which launched a factory outlet for candles molded or made by hand by former offenders.
A day after Sun.Star Cebu covered the factory launch, a Cebuana read Fr. Vic’s wish to acquire a small lot to expand their candle-making. The philanthropist then donated a 10,500-square meter farm in Sirao to jumpstart the coop’s aspirations.
Today, the PSP Farm in Sitio Tawagan I in Sirao is home and workplace for 11 former convicts and seven minors in conflict with the law. The coop members, as well as trainees, whose lives were once shadowed by crime and violence, make the decorative PSP Kandila, as well as raise organic vegetables and cutflowers.
Increments of normalcy
Due to the popularity of salads and wellness lifestyles, the pesticide-free cucumbers, carrots and other vegetables raised on the PSP Farm never reach department stores as the customers themselves go to Sirao, attests Fr. Vic.
With the PSP purple lettuce going only for P170 a kilo, compared to the usual grocery price of P230-P250 a kilo, the holiday demand has even prevented the coop from meeting the demands of regulars and walk-in buyers.
The same can be said of the cutflowers, specially the long-stemmed roses imported from Texas. With some varieties counting 64-67 petals to a bloom, the roses have already drawn inquiries long before their full bloom in February.
PSP Kandila, sold at the Gorordo Ave. office, provides a living for two years now to Benjie Choche, 34, who says the candles’ variety of designs, colors and scents have been very saleable, boosting his confidence and skills in selling.
Coop member Vincent Balogbog, 25, was an out-of-school youth in Balamban three years ago when he met Fr. Vic. At the end of the day’s duties of helping out at the PSP Kandila store, he attends classes at a local university to complete the third year of his commerce studies. He is still able to help out in his parent’s small store.
Fr. Vic believes that the PSP coop, though modest when ranged against the number of released prisoners, achieves by increments, gradually restoring self-sufficiency and self-respect to those deserving another chance. Since dysfunctional families create criminal minds, the former Jesuit turned diocesan priest urges the broader social family to restore these victims’ rights.
Assisted by a pastoral worker, Joseph secured his release from Bilibid. But instead of taking up with a girlfriend and his old ways, the 22-year-old joined the PSP Coop. He is now expert at making vigil candles, one of which, a bestseller, has been molded into two hands cupped and raised in appeal and thanksgiving.
