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Pasko sa Binilanggo

December 17th, 2005

It’s now only seven days before Christmas. Everyone is off and ready for parties, reunions, exchange gifts, and assorted happy whatsoever. After all, Christmas is “the most wonderul time of the year” and everyone is supposed to be happy. Christmas time as a joyous and festive occasion comes to be accepted as a universal norm. And becuse of this state of mind, the joyful atmosphere of Christmas also serves as the most perfect backdrop for irony. In the midst of the season of plenty and celebration there are poor souls suffering from tragedies, despondent and languishing in silent misery. A lot of stories and songs have been made in this context, like the old classic movie, All Mine to Give, and the Band Aid song, Do They Know its Christmas.

There is one song that struck me deeply with this same thought. It is a Cebuano song I heard sung regularly by the istambays in our place in Iligan City during drinking sessions a long Christmastime ago. It is said that the song was composed by a prisoner whose name remain in legendary anonymity. Incarcerated away from his family and friends, he sadly wished them merry Christmas. The lyrics of the song depicts injustice, imparts a feeling of intense unhappiness and its melody is tuned almost like a melancholic lullaby. The song is aptly titled, Pasko sa Binilanggo (A Prisoner’s Christmas).

Pasko sa Binilanggo

Sa gikauban ko pa
Ang mahal nakong ginikanan
Inig abot sa Pasko
malipayon, masadya ang tanan.
Karon ay wala na
ang Pasko ko ay kagul-anan
ako karon ani-a na
sa mabugnaw nga bilanggo-an

Nabilanggo ako
sa kaso nga sanglit lamang.
Naapil sa Barkada
sa salang way nahibaw-an.
Wa nay mahimo pa
isa ako ka sentensyahan.
Bisan magbasol man ako
maoy badlis sa kapalaran.

Korus:

Meri Krismas na lang
Sa akong mga minahal
Sa akong mga kahigalaan
Sa malipayong puluy-anan
Ako may nag-antus
Wa magpaabot nga kaloy-an
I-ampo lamang ninyo ako
ug Meri Krismas na lang.

Meri Krismas na lang
sa mga tawong way kasing-kasing
nga nagduot kanako
aron ako mabilanggo.
Kanang pagduot nyo
ay ako na nga gikalimtan
ayaw kahadlok nga ikaw
ay ako nga pahimungtan.

 A Prisoner’s Christmas

When I was still
with my loving parents
comes Christmas
we were all happy and joyful.
Now this is all gone.
My Christmas is just a misery
Here in a cold prison cell.

I was jailed for a petty reason
Implicated with friends
in a crime I didn’t commit.
I can no longer do anything
they have already sentenced me.
Though I regret
I surrender to fate.

Chorus:

Merry Christmas is all I can wish
to my loved ones
to my friends
to my happy home.
Even if I suffer
I do not expect to be pitied.
Just pray for me and may you
have a Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas is all I can wish
to the heartless people
who sent me to prison.
I have already forgotten
what you did to me.
And don’t be afraid
I won’t blame you.

This song strikes me not just because of its general emotional appeal. My heart hangs heavy with the thoughts of the thousands of Children languishing in our prisons today. According to the Coalition to Stop Child Detention Through Restorative Justice, in their petition to the United Nations, the number of small children as young as 8 years old in the Philippines who become victims of sodomy, rape and abuse for being imprisoned with hardened adult criminals has risen from 20,000 in 2003 to a soaring 52,000 in 2004.

On Christmas eve, imagine what happens to these Children in the midst of adult criminals and rapists celebrating Christmas inside their cramped, dark and cold prison cells.

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