While the tragedy of the Fallen 44 continues to hold public attention, there’s still good news from some parts of the country like Cebu where the spirit of enterprise is alive and well.
Lito Granada, an inmate at the Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center (CPDRC), is a living example of that.
He didn’t let his bakery skills go to waste or his allow his creativity to be stifled by prison bars.
With borrowed capital of P2,000 three years ago, Granada prepared “siakoy” (sugar laced twisted donuts) and “binangkal” (crusty bread balls sprinkled with sesame seeds) as snacks in the in the jail canteen.
He later found an idle oven in the prison, and began baking bread. After training fellow inmates to assist him, the small enterprise became a cooperative project.
The snacks later found their way to the Noy Honesto cafe, a self-service counter set up by the Police Regional Office and led to the inmates’ own satellite cafe in the jail’s lobby.
Today the modest baking venture helps support inmates who earn modest allowances.
More importantly, the enterprise allows them to recover the dignity of labor.
Detention prisoners are those who are still facing trial, and attending court hearings. No verdict of guilt or acquittal has come down yet for them.
This is why efforts have to be geared for rehabilitation, a shot at redemption, while they do their time.
CPDRC inmates have gained international fame for their choreographed dance routines, starting from Michael Jackson’s “Beat
It”, a 2007 YouTube blockbuster, to their latest version of a tribute for Pope Francis.
The dance routines are popular.
But the skills that will serve them well after they leave the prison are practical ones like the baking techniques Granada honed and shared with his fellow inmates.
Initiatives like this should be encouraged.
Teaching inmates a decent livelihood, an alternative to whatever criminal predilictions they were charged with, would go a long way in restoring the moral and financial health of both the detainees and the community they return to.
Like the Noy Honesto cafe, it takes a bold statement of positive values to start something good.
When we last reported about the bakery, a Cebu foundation had pledged to provide a bigger oven and other kitchen equipment for Granada.
Anybody else out there willing to help this seed grow?