back from prison

today i just got back from the new bilibid prison, it's where all the sentenced prisoners from all over the country are kept. as of this moment i haven't really processed all that transpired, all that i saw and experienced. for sure it is one of the bleakest places, but it is also one full of hope. today i realized that although most, if not all, of them deserve to be there for what they did, some were also just victims of circumstance, victims of the system that is unjust and unfair. true, they did what they did but that doesn't mean they wanted to. today i talked to a youth offender. his name is allen, and he was sentenced with death. he did his crime (he never told me exactly what) when he was just 14, and it gets you thinking: what kind of life must he have lived that caused him to do something that got him into death row? most times we pass judgments on these people without even knowing the story behind it all. but i've got news for you fellows, the world isn't black and white, the gray matter is so much wider and broader than you can imagine. i won't romanticize anything, being in prison is ugly, and sometimes, living in all that ugliness can make one ugly, too. but these prisoners are more than that which tv tells us they are, they are more than the disorder they protray, the deception they show. deep down they have dignity, and more often than not, they are truer than the people in the outside world. they are much more sincere, and much more open. and when you talk to them, they show you who they really are, even when they don't know how we'll react. i can't really put into words what i felt then, or what they're really like, you'll have to go and see for yourselves. but just remember this, whatever they might have done, they are still people, and it is not for us, people ourselves, to determine who should die and who should live. only He can say that, only He has the right to.