Prison can’t keep him from pursuing his dream Edson C. Tandoc Jr. Philippine Daily Inquirer
November 02, 2009
MANILA, Philippines – Vic, 38, could have abandoned his childhood dream of becoming a teacher. His poor parents managed to support his studies only up to high school. And, at 21, he was sentenced to the New Bilibid Prisons (NBP) for robbery with homicide.
But not even prison could kill Vic’s dream. In the 17 years he has been serving time, he finished three vocational courses in automotive and practical electricity, earned a degree in commerce and is finally living his dream. He is one of the inmates who, after finishing college in prison, now teaches other inmates in the facility’s elementary school.
“Having been able to finish college in jail was a big opportunity,” he said.
Help came by way of the University of Perpetual Help Delta System (UP HDS) Extension School, which operates within the prison’s Medium Security Compound. The school allows inmates to earn for free a degree in commerce.
The course aimed to prepare inmates to start businesses after serving their jail terms, as ex-convicts often found it difficult to get jobs, said Assistant Solicitor General Karl Miranda, a volunteer teacher.
The prison also has pre-school, elementary and high school for inmates, which are all accredited by the Department of Education.
Vic managed to earn his degree although life in jail was harsh. During the first weeks of his incarceration, he would break down during meals, remembering times with his family. When he got sick, nobody took care of him.
But Vic decided he was too young to give up.
Vic was moved from the Bulacan provincial jail to the NBP’s Maximum Security Compound in 1992. Upon his transfer to the Medium Security Compound in 2000, he discovered the prison’s college. “I noticed that some inmates (had) what looked like school IDs,” he said.
Some 200 of 6,000 inmates at the Medium Security Compound are enrolled in college. The inmates have prison terms of three to 20 years.
Vic, the youngest of eight children in a family too poor to afford college, saw an opportunity to improve himself and his lot.
Despite feeling he was too old to pursue a degree, he enrolled in college, graduating in 2005. He also took a vocational course in computer repair after graduation.
His diplomas hang in his cramped prison cell, reminders of his academic accomplishments and his courage to pursue his dream.
Two of them are photocopies as he has sent the originals of his automotive and practical electricity diplomas to his parents in Samar. “My parents were very happy, especially when they learned I had finished college.”
The school inside the prison opened in June 1984, through an agreement between the University of Perpetual Help Rizal-Las Piñas, the Rotary Club of Las Piñas and the Bureau of Corrections.
NBP assistant officer-in-charge Victor Fajardo said many graduates have been able to start their own small businesses or land jobs upon their release.
Graduates who still have years to serve in prison, like Vic, are offered teaching jobs.
Vic has been teaching Grades 4 and 6 mathematics and science since 2005 at the Itaas Elementary School Annex (IESA) inside the Medium Security Compound. He has about 40 students every school year.
Some of his students, who never had the chance to go to school before they were imprisoned, are much older than him. But he is proud of his students. “They are very attentive during class.”
Vic said he survived 17 years in prison by holding on to his faith and by believing that he would eventually be freed.
And now Vic has also found love. He has been exchanging letters with a woman who he hopes to marry as soon as he is released from NBP.
