In a week filled with grim news, the story of former inmate Timoteo Lucernas is a small but shining source of inspiration of what one can do to rise above a crippled life and moving on to a better future helping not only one’s self but others as well.
Lucernas is a native of San Francisco, Camotes, who was charged with raping his neighbor. He was nearly abandoned by his family . His wife left him even before he was charged in court in 2005.
He managed to keep his sanity through prayers and did his time.
With Lucernas’ eventual release from prison, he should have left and found a new life far away.
Instead, he accepted a provincial government offer to work as a maintenance man at the Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center (CPDRC).
His advice to inmates?
“Dili mawad-an sa paglaum sa kinabuhi nga bisan og binilanggo ta…moabot ra gihapon ang adlaw nga ihatag sa ilang kalayaan (Never lose hope in life even if one is in prison…there will come a day when you will be given your freedom).
The words are credible only because they come from someone who did time behind bars.
In the crowded CPDRC, detained men and women are facing trial for offenses they committed or did not commit.
They are kept away from the general population as potential hazards to public safety.
Yet through efforts like the dancing inmates, who’ve become an international showcase of discipline and showmanship, the province is looking beyond YouTube fame to offer more productive actvities for inmates even if they have yet to gain their freedom.
The Noy Honesto Café which stocks bread and snacks produced by a bakery run by CDPRC inmates is one example.
A former baker has tapped and trained fellow inmates to prepare pan de sal and other tasty bread varieties to earn income on the side.
The job provides dignity through labor. It also can develop skills to help them find employment later once they are released from prison.
In a review of that quintessential prison film “The Shawshank Redemption,” the late movie critic Roger Ebert compared the movie to an allegory for maintaining one’s self-worth when mired in a hopeless situation.
The main character Andy Dufresne maintained his integrity in prison even when he was wrongfully convicted on charges of murdering his wife and her lover.
We hope the CPDRC and by extension the provincial government’s rehabilitation of inmates continues to build on that foundation of ensuring their self-worth.