First Person: Filipino elderly ex-prisoner’s joy of ‘sleeping and eating’

According to Government figures, the number of inmates are four times over the planned capacity, making the Philippines one of the most overcrowded penal systems in the world alongside countries like the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Haiti and Uganda.

But now the Government, with the support of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), is trying to ease congestion by prioritizing, amongst other things, the release of elderly prisoners.

Toto Aquino, who is 70 years old, spoke to UN News’ Daniel Dickinson at his home in the Pandacan neighbourhood of the capital Manila.

“I was released two weeks ago and I feel good. I was incarcerated for eight years, four years in pre-trial detention at Manila City Jail and, four years after I was convicted, in Bilibid prison.

It was very crowded and I slept on a piece of cardboard in a corridor in Bilibid during those four years. I was housed in a maximum-security wing, 4C-2, alongside members of a gang, but I was not a gang member myself. There is a hierarchy in gangs and this is why I did not have a good place to sleep.

We had to go to our sleeping quarters at 6pm every day and wake up at 4am. Every day I ate porridge, coffee, bread and rice and sometimes hotdogs. This is rancho food, the food that prisoners receive from the prison kitchen. You can buy other food, but I didn’t have the money, so I survived off rancho.

It feels good to be free! I am living with my younger brother in the house that I grew up in with my five siblings. Life is very different now as I can eat and sleep when I want. I have a comfortable bed and my own room and my brother cooks good food.

In prison, I dreamt of chicken adobo [Filipino chicken stew] and a soft mattress and today I have both of these things; sleeping and eating is now my joy.

Since I was released from prison I have stayed at home. I am comfortable here. I sit on a stool on my doorstep and watch the neighbourhood go by.

I grew up here, so I know my neighbours. I sometimes sweep the yard and burn the rubbish and I also continue to do 15 press-ups several times a day, which I started in prison to keep fit.

I have not seen my daughter for ten years. She lives in another part of the country and I hope to see her soon as she is pregnant with her second child.

I think it is important for convicted people to serve their sentences, but I also think the release of old people like me should be prioritized. I was released with other elderly prisoners, but I know men who are 75 years old and who are still being held.”