Merong Dalawang Klaseng Luha: KaPASKUHAN 2025 sa NBP

Nitong December 8, dumating nang maaga ang Pasko sa New Bilibid Prison dahil sa kauna-unahang KaPASKUHAN 2025 – Kapatid Paskuhan Para sa Bilanggong Pulitikal at Pamilya. Simple lamang ang layunin nito: mapataas ang moral ng mga bilanggong pulitikal, maipadama ang pagkalinga at pagpapahalaga, at maghatid ng pag-asa sa gitna ng pagsubok.

Pero may dalawang klaseng luha ang KaPaskuhan namin. There were two kinds of tears.

The first, held at the Maximum Security Compound, was about tears of joy as mothers and children hugged loved ones they have not seen for ten years and more.

Angel, 12, and Amer, 11, held tight to their father Elmer, “Masayang masaya ako,” Elmer said as he hugged his two children close to him, tears welling up. “Baby pa si Amer nung huli ko siyang makita.” That was nearly ten years ago. His wife Analou and children left Daet, Camarines Norte around 2 a.m. just to see him.

At the large visiting hall, the handmade white streamer by political prisoners read: “Paskuhan 2025: Maligayang Pagdating Kapamilya. Sa pagkakalayo ay mapaglalapit din.”

Erwin Sibulo, arrested at 18 and now 40, was like a little boy again as he clung to his 75-year old mother, Salvacion, during the 4-hour reunion. They had not seen each other since he was transferred to the NBP Maximum Compound.

“Kukunan lang kami ng statement sabi ng mga sundalo pero di na kami pinalabas,” Erwin recalls about September 21, 2003, when he and neighbor Salvador Paladin were taken from their farm in Capalonga, Camarines Norte after a barangay captain was killed by suspected NPAs. “Sabado nung kunin kami. Lunes, naka demanda na kami.”

Salvacion, reed thin but unbent, told me about her husband Rogelio, a coconut farmer, who was killed by CAFGU elements in 1980. “Pinana siya,” shot dead with arrows. Since then, sadness has hounded their family in a poverty-stricken region long a hotbed of insurgency.

Kapatid Pamasko Bag for those who joined the NBP visit | Photo by Fides Lim

A gift bag for political prisoners | Photo by Fides Lim

Across the long table, Rodel, Salvacion’s older son, excitedly munched on boiled kamoteng kahoy—a taste of home missed for 17 years. Rodel was arrested with his uncle Domingueto in May 2008 on yet another trumped-up criminal case—and simply because the surname Sibulo had become synonymous with one of the earliest cases of red-tagging. There are three Sibulos at the NBP Maximum, all maintaining innocence but enduring injustice.

Leonora, sister of Salvador Paladin, also made the long journey to visit her brother she hasn’t in nearly a decade. She and another sister are now all he has since his wife left him – a heartbreak shared also by Rodel and Domingueto as well as numerous PDLs.

However, at the NBP Medium compound, the tears were bitter. Annie Arambulo, 50, wept loudly when told, she couldn’t see her husband Fernando Arambulo, 52, a worker and former coordinator of Makabayan Laguna, now 10 years in jail. Yet, Kapatid had submitted the names of Annie and their two children for visitation. It was only after Jeosi went to the NBP Superintendent to complain that Fernando was brought out to see his family, but for less than 20 minutes. That very same day, he was to be transferred to the Abuyog Penal Colony in the island of Leyte—on the vain hope of a better prison life. Yet this is the same penal colony where Kapatid has provided support for political prisoners pleading for rice and maintenance medicines.

At the Medium compound, prison guards also refused to allow the Jollibee soft drink in paper glasses while the boxed chicken meals had to be transferred. Only half of the maintenance medicines that Annie brought were allowed–”pinag-ipunan pa naman namin ito.”

But even at the Medium Compound, where the reunion was brief and bittersweet, the heart of KaPaskuhan shone through. And as I noted in my message at the Maximum compound: Hindi aksidente na ang unang araw ng proyektong ito ay Kapistahan ng Immaculate Conception. Tulad ni Mama Mary na ipinanganak na walang sala, paalala ito na laging may pagkakataon para sa pagkakabuo at katarungan—ang makapiling muli ang pamilya at maranasan ang pagmamahal na karapat-dapat sa bawat bilanggong pulitikal sa kanilang paglalakbay tungo sa paglaya.

At kahit “banned” daw ako ng BuCor, nagliwanag din ang pagkakataon na makapasok ako sa NBP upang maging bahagi ng Kapaskuhan.

Taos-puso kaming nagpapasalamat sa lahat ng donors at sa mga pamilya na naglakbay mula Southern Tagalog at Bicol upang makapiling ang kanilang minamahal. At higit sa lahat, nagpapasalamat kami sa mga political prisoners na patuloy nagbibigay-inspirasyon at lakas sa amin upang maisakatuparan ang diwa ng KaPaskuhan: pagmamahal, pagkalinga, at pag-asa sa gitna ng pader at dilim.

Babalik kami, samahan niyo kami!

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