Visiting this place is usually still a part of the city tour. You of course know, Iwahig is a prison. So what is there to see or experience in such a place? Well, just read on, and learn through my story below. I'm now even convinced, this is the most eye-opening place I've been to in the country. Full of realizations!
It is not near wherever you may be coming from. I remember we traveled on a not-so-good road to this penal colony. We were thinking we would just be peeping at some old prison cell for a very short while and that's it. We even almost decided to back out as the distance was making us impatient. Good that our tour guide kept everything interesting with stories, facts and figures. So we reached it "in no time"!
Check-in. At the entrance guard house, at least one person in the group must write all visitors' names on a logbook. Seniority has its benefits, and my companions were quick to claim that benefit. I, being the youngest in the group, was commanded to do that for all of us, while they waited in the comforts of the air-conditioned van. Tour guides aren't allowed to do this 'registration' thing. It must be at least one, or all guests. Maybe that's a security thing? Them sizing us up via our looks? Hmm, probably! But good there were only 6 of us, for this must have been tedious, if there was a busload of all of us hehe.
The companions (mga gurang!) just stayed in the van taking photos of me as I scribbled their names. But little did they know, I was already learning things even as I did so. Like? Like the guard is not your usual sloppy blue-guard seen at malls, factories or corporate offices. He is (I think) what they call the "jail-guard", wearing an authoritative uniform, carrying a long firearm (shotgun, OMG), and conversant. Yes well-versed, and he sounds learned, unlike many blue-guards that only know how to say “bawal”!
Hey, I was actually surprised (bordering on 'alarmed') that this, was already “the gate”! I was expecting some kind of high concrete wall with barbed wire mesh and a tall steel gate. Ahehehe, all there is is a single wooden bar (pole) much like what you see at toll gates or entrance to so-so residential villages!
Quick as writing our 6 names, I already learned more surprising 'details' about this penal colony. Such as? This is not an island as you would imagine 'Alcatraz', or even 'Australia' of centuries ago. Iwahig is just a farm that is very much a part of, and even only 14 kilometers from Puerto Princesa's city center.
Confirmed, that there is "barbed wire" on most (but not all) parts of the colony's 260 square kilometer boundaries - that's slightly bigger than Osaka or slightly smaller than Taipei! Well, the southern portion of the penal colony, about a kilometer of it, runs along a river and mangrove forests (no barbed wires).
Prisoners who are under “maximum security” are the only ones locked up in cells. “Medium” and “low” security 'inmates' roam around freely - the people that we were already seeing tending to farms or just about everywhere. See? Very lucky of me to have been 'coerced' to writing our names on that logbook.
I got information I wanted to hear, even before our tour guide started explaining things. Those wearing orange shirts are from the maximum security bloc (or is it block?). They do get to go out everyday and till the farms too, but always under armed guards. Those in brown shirts are "trustees" or on minimum security - they have their own houses and families in this big wide township! The blue shirted folks are 'medium security' inmates, about as free as the 'browns' but they sleep locked-up in cells for the night.
There's some kind of a 'prison store' where handicrafts made by inmates are on display and for sale to visitors. Proceeds are divided by percentage - a part of it goes to 'prison management', a portion goes to the inmate/s who made the product, and yet another portion goes to some kind of "forced savings" withdrawable only upon the prisoner's release (i.e., after serving the sentence, commutation or death).
Of course I did not anymore ask about their accounting or disbursement systems hahaha! I was there just as a tourist, not as financial, quality or process reviewer 'no?! Baka kung ano pa ang malaman ko!
Hey, there's even a 'thriving underground economy' in this colony hehe! Like this: some of the inmates who are free to move/loiter around (brown/blue shirts) can and will approach you to make a personal sale, instead of displaying products at the store shelves! At least, the proceeds go directly to them. I'm not sure if that's good or bad for their community in general, but if they need cash badly, that, is a way.
We fancied some cute toy animals made of used plastic cups from popular fastfood chains. Creative! But some of the jewelry boxes and wood carvings are really quality items worth marketing worldwide!
This is "just" a penal colony - and as if I have seen other penal colonies hahaha - but the general feel is very similar with going to most rural communities. There are houses, there's a school, there's a chapel, a basketball court, stores and so on. No wonder, some "residents" in this big wide farming community are "ex" inmates! Yeah, ex-prisoners who're "laya na" (free to go), opt to live the rest of their lives here!
Now.., what if in the future there becomes too many of these "laya na" folks opting to stay in the farm just the same, and even start procreating? Our tour guide said "the city and the bureau of corrections will probably cross that bridge when we get there"! Well, 260 sqkm. of land takes long to fill, I guess!
This is a different kind of prison, because, it looks like it is not!
Worth a re-visit, I think.
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