Agusan: Child stands outside prison walls to fulfill jailed mom’s wish

Emotional scene between mom and daughter caught on video goes viral

Five-year-old child stands outside jail walls to let her jailed mother see her in her graduation atttire. | Screen Grab from Egos video

CEBU CITY, Philippines – A graduation is most likely an occasion that a parent especially a mother would proudly attend and celebrate with her son or daughter.

It is the time for a mom to appreciate her child’s achievement as her daughter or her son moves on to the next phase of his or her journey to gain more knowledge about things that can give her a fighting chance at a better life when she gets older.

But what happens when a five-year-old girl’s mom is serving time in jail and would fail to attend her child’s graduation?

READ: On his graduation day, son remembers late mom: ‘This one’s for you’

One scenario would be after her graduation, the five-year-old child, who is being taken cared of by her aunt now, heads to jail from her graduation from kindergarten. This is to fulfill the incarcerated mom’s request to see her wearing her graduation gown and cap, which is a way for her to connect with her child in celebrating this once in a lifetime event in her child’s life.

This leads to the scene with the daughter standing outside the jail walls wearing her graduation attire as she communicates with her mother, who extends her hand between the gaps of jail bars as if to reach out to her child. This as the mom looks to her five-year-old child behind the bars of the small window from the prison’s second floor. The girl, on the other hand, finds a spot outside the prison wall where her mom could see her.

This emotional scene between the mom and her daughter happened in a jail in Santiago, Agusan del Norte.

The heart wrenching scene was caught on video and posted on April 8, 2025 by the 27-year-old mom’s sister, who accompanied the child there to fulfill the mom’s wish.

The video went viral online and since it’s posting or as of 3 p.m. of April 10 has garnered 6.7 million views.

How long has the mom been behind bars and how did the mom end up there?

READ: How a little girl from Bohol made her classmates cry on graduation day

In an interview with CDN Digital, the aunt said that the mom was implicated in a drug-related case last year.

“Dili man gyud siya ang target kaso kadtong balay nga gi-raid siya ang naatlan nga naa didto,” claimed the aunt.

(She was not the target but she was inside the house when the raid happened.)

The mother, now 27, has been detained for 10 months at the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology’s Cabadbaran City Jail in Mindanao.

When asked why they did not just go inside the jail to visit the mother, the aunt said that they could not afford to provide food as a way to celebrate her niece’s achievement with her mom.

READ: Father and daughter share graduation day

“Pwede kaayo mi makasulod… pero sama anang wala mi kwarta pang budget, usahay [diri na lang gyud mi] sa [bintana] mag [storya] kadali,” the aunt wrote in a separate Facebook post.

(We can really enter the jail [to visit the mother]…but because we don’t have money for the budget [on food] sometimes [we’ll just stay here] outside [window of the jail] to [talk] with her for a while.)

Given the circumstances, the aunt helps her niece cope while the mother serves her sentence.

The videos shared by the aunt on social media have not only drawn public attention but also encouraged netizens to offer support.

Many have reached out with resources to help ease the burden of the family, particularly for the needs of the five-year-old daughter.