Caloocan inmates spend Christmas with families

MANILA, Philippines - Inmates at the Caloocan City Jail were given a special privilege to spend 24 hours with members of their family.

Superintendent Lyndon Torres, the city jail warden, said he allowed prisoners to spend Thursday up to 6 p.m. yesterday with their wife and children “for them to really feel the spirit of Christmas.”

The 1,181 inmates and their visitors were also treated to eight lechons (roast pigs). Jail officials held parlor games for the children and gave each of them a gift.

“This is my happiest Christmas for the past three years of being in prison. I felt like I was free because my family is here with me,” Erick Ravino, 33, who was cuddling his one-year-old daughter, told The STAR.

Another girl, Lovely, 11, who said her father had been in jail for the past 16 years, said she, her sister and their mother were having a “good time.” Asked why her father is in prison, Lovely said she did not know.

Torres said jail guards “are still on red alert and are very particular in terms of security” despite allowing the prisoners’ relatives to visit them.       – Pete Laude