In first person: “I feel good being free”

An elderly Filipino prisoner expresses his joy at being able to “sleep and eat” at home thanks to a UN-backed government programme to tackle overcrowding in detention centres.

According to Philippine government figures, the number of inmates is four times higher than the planned capacity, making the Philippines one of the most overcrowded prison systems in the world, alongside countries such as the Democratic Republic of Congo, Haiti and Uganda.

But now the Government, with the support of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), is trying to ease congestion by prioritizing, among other things, the release of elderly prisoners.

Former Filipino prisoner Toto Aquino, 70, spoke to UN News about his joy at “sleeping and eating” as a free man at his home in the Pandacan neighbourhood of Manila, the country’s capital.

“I was released two weeks ago and I feel fine. I was incarcerated for eight years, four years in pretrial detention in Manila jail and four years after being sentenced, in Bilibid prison.

Was very overcrowded and for those four years I slept on a piece of cardboard in a hallway in BilibidI was housed in a maximum security ward, 4C-2, with members of a gang, but I was not a member of any gang. There is a hierarchy in gangs, so I didn’t have a good place to sleep.

Every day we had to go to our dormitory at six in the evening and get up at four in the morning. Every day he ate porridge, coffee, bread and rice and sometimes sausages. It is ranch food. the one that prisoners receive from the prison kitchen. Other foods can be bought, but I didn’t have any money.

I feel good about being free. I live with my younger brother in the house where I grew up with my five siblings. Life is very different now as I can eat and sleep whenever I want. I have a comfortable bed and my own room, and my brother cooks well.

Toto Aquino at his home, two weeks after being released from a Philippine prison.

In prison I dreamed of chicken marinade and a soft mattress, and today I have both; sleeping and eating are now my joy.

Since I got out of prison I’ve been staying at home. I’m comfortable here. I sit on a stool at the door of my house and watch the life of the neighborhood go by.

I grew up here, so I know my neighbors. I sometimes sweep the yard and burn trash, and I also still do 15 push-ups several times a day, something I started doing in prison to stay in shape.

I haven’t seen my daughter for ten years. She lives in another part of the country and I hope to see her soon, as she is pregnant with her second child.

I think it is important that convicts serve their sentences, but also I think that priority should be given to the release of older people like me. “I was released with other elderly prisoners, but I know 75-year-old men who are still in prison.”