A parent’s worst nightmare (Part 2)

It has been almost a year sportsman and race organizer Adi delos Reyes’ only child Andrew has been languishing in San Mateo Jail in Rizal. Imprisoned after a failed police raid produced nothing against the owner of the house he happened to be visiting, the 20-year-old has had no physical contact with his family or friends since being wrongfully arrested. He is also jailed with repeat offenders and the derelict, in a facility packed to almost four times its capacity. Upon Andrew’s arrest, his father hastily set to mount his son’s defense, and expected a quick acquittal.

Then the pandemic hit, pushing the hearings back by agonizing months, stranding Andrew in jail.

To make matters worse, the jail sits near a junction of the Marikina and San Mateo rivers, and consistently floods during storms. With the onslaught of successive typhoons, particularly Rolly and Ulysses, the Delos Reyes family could only pray in helpless horror.

“It was mental torture for our family at the height of Ulysses, knowing our child was stuck there,” Adi confessed. “We were even more terrified when we heard that the whole BJMP San Mateo was under water, with only the roof showing.”

It was only the foresight of Warden Joey Doguiles that literally saved the lives of the inmates. If Doguiles hadn’t anticipated danger and evacuated the incarcerated to higher ground at a nearby elementary school earlier, many of them would have indeed drowned. When the floodwaters receded, all the inmates’ and BJMP personnel’s belongings were irreparably buried in inches of thick mud. It could have been them. In the aftermath, Adi delivered 100 new sleeping mats donated to the inmates, but roughly 700 more are still needed.

On Nov. 24, at only the second hearing allowed on the case under the pandemic, the family’s lawyer perforated the police report, which accused Andrew – a 6’3” basketball player – of having a pound of marijuana in his possession, after an alleged and unprovable transaction. The flustered policeman on the witness stand uttered weak, disorganized replies to detailed questioning.

Luckily, Doguiles has also been trying to look out for Andrew, letting the youngster play in three-on-three games among the inmates. Given the current circumstances, there will be no quick release for Andrew, yet. Unless someone of influence intervenes on behalf of an innocent whose future is being destroyed for no reason by law enforcers, Adi’s son will continue to languish in jail.

If it were your only child, what would you do?