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A DAY IN THE LIFE OF A PREDA INTERN

fathershay-makmakA DAY IN THE LIFE OF A PREDA INTERN
Weekly Report: 9-13th of March

This week primarily consisted of office work. I spent much of my time sifting through the Preda website; categorising articles and news stories, correcting any mistakes I saw along the way. This gave me an invaluable experience in developing my coding and organisational skills. One of the recommended tasks I was to undertake as an intern was to ‘assist in the communications of the receiving organisation’. My work on Preda website over the course of the last two weeks certainly falls into this category so my college should be happy at the very least.

The highlight of the week was Wednesday, the 11th.March 2014 On this day I attended court

went to court hearings, jail visits and visited some of the boys’ family homes. We journeyed from Preda to Manila, starting at 4am. The court hearing was interesting. I had the opportunity to witness the Filipino justice system first-hand. In keeping with much of the cases I had read about, the hearings were plagued by the absence of witnesses, defendants, complainants, etc. This was ultimately to affect one of the Preda clients, Luigi, who was accused of stealing a mobile phone.

After 4 hearings in two years, the complainant has not yet bothered to show up to give evidence. Luigi has been in detention now for two years because of this – albeit Preda detention, which is much less oppressive than the usual child detention facilities. Regardless, it is still a restriction on his liberty and he has had to endure the stress of a possible conviction hanging over his head for two years.

Given that apparently his behaviour has been impeccable at Preda over the course of his stay, it seems insane that the proceedings have dragged on this long for an alleged petty theft committed when he was 14, especially taking into account the clear lack of interest on the part of the complainant. Another hearing was set for May. This process of delay was infuriating enough to read about in case files, even more so to witness in person.

After the hearing we visited two former Preda clients in an adult jail across the road. The conditions were predictably horrific. To me it looked like a breeding ground for extreme violence. There seemed to be no segregation between serious and trivial offenders. We were told that there was an allocation of 30Pesos per prisoner which they could use to buy some food. Naturally, much of this disappeared, presumably into the pockets of those who run the place, so prisoners have to rely on each other for support. I imagine this arrangement doesn’t work out so well for the weaker, more vulnerable prisoners, or for those marked out as outcasts. The two guys seemed delighted when Leon bought some food for them, which they munched down hungrily. The prison was plainly too small for the number of inmates. When we met the two guys, most of them had been herded into a different section of the jail. Although I’m sure many of them have done very bad things, the sight of hundreds of men trapped essentially into steel cages is an affront to any notion of human dignity.

I can only assume that those who were violent going into these institutions will become even more violent when they come out; and many who have not had violent histories discover a violence within themselves that they had known before, as an effect of the pretty brutal and dehumanising nature of life in these prisons. It is pretty well documented that in countries like Japan and in Nordic Europe, where offenders are treated like human being during the time of their incarceration, the likelihood that prisoners will reoffend upon release dramatically decreases.

Although the Philippines can’t be expected to have standards equalling that of Japan or Nordic Europe, a move toward more rehabilitative techniques could be achieved step-by-step, without any huge resource allocation for the project – preventing prisoners’ measly

In the same building of this prison, on a lower floor, there was a cell where tens of people were detained. It was explained to me that they used to detain children there but that now it is a temporary detention cell for adults. Despite this, many of the detainees looked extremely young. This was agreed upon by everyone there.

We moved on to a small government facility for street children and youth detainees. It acts as a temporary home for the kids, while they are awaiting transfer to the appropriate institutions. They are required to take in all the children that the police dump on their door. This means that the tiny facility is a bit overcrowded. Taking this into account it seemed like a nice enough place. Many of the children had mental disabilities and it was heartening to see that they are well looked after there. The staff were very professional and compassionate, exhibiting the potential for high quality care for these children, which could be realised quite easily with some investment from above.

We visited 5 of the boys’ homes. They came from a variety of different backgrounds and family situations.

We first visited 12 year-old JM’s home. It consisted merely of a fold-up cot for the family’s 6-month old baby. It was located in an alley within a slum. There was limited protection from the torrential rain. In an effort to prevent the visitors from getting wet, JM’s father held up an umbrella against the water splashing in from the street. To make us feel even more comfortable, their neighbours assisted in bringing a bench for us to sit down on. To illustrate the size of the accommodation, this act of generosity required them to fold up the tiny cot just to fit the bench in. It was quite striking to see the lengths they went to make us comfortable in their modest surroundings.

I had heard that many of the home visits do not go as planned; that the parents of the children often do not show up. They might believe that their child has brought shame on the family or that he/she is simply a troublemaker; or the parent may just be neglectful. For whatever reason, two of the boys’ guardians did not show up for the meetings on this occasion.

The first incident was a visit to the workplace of Geron’s father. He seemed (naturally) very upset when his dad was nowhere to be found. It was kind of heartbreaking to see, although the other boys seemed to cheer him up through just engaging him in playful conversation.

Similarly, Jomar’s aunt and guardian was not there when we visited. His brother described how he would have liked to finish school but his aunt could not support him through his final years. Brings home some of the factors that cause very eager young people to fall through the cracks, never fulfilling their potential and maybe dropping out of mainstream society altogether and getting involved in crime.

To finish off the day, we visited a youth detention facility where we picked up 4 boys. The centre itself was clean and brightly lit. Instead of the gruesome sight of bars, the children were trapped behind a large pane of glass to the front. Although prettier, to me this seemed even more oppressive. I know the children are not trapped here all day everyday, but I’m pretty sure I would go insane if I had to spend more than an hour trapped somewhere like that. The new boys were quite shy and stuck together for the car journey to Preda.

Sean.B
Human Rights researcher

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Preda Foundation Inc.

The work of Preda Foundation is focused on alleviating the physical, emotional, psychological and sexual abuse and suffering of children and preventing abuse through community education and social media.

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