One day in 2002, in a small town in the Philippines, Ronald, in his twenties, came home from work.
When he walked to the door, he suddenly felt something strange, because there seemed to be a strange noise coming from inside the door. He pushed open the door and first saw a pair of shoes, a pair of strange men's shoes.
Then Ronald saw his wife lying with a strange man. He was suddenly out of breath, ready to beat up the man.
But unlike other "Lao Wang" who were caught raping, this strange man did not escape, but did not know where to find a pistol.
The strange man pointed a gun at Ronald, telling him to be honest, and then pointed the gun at Ronald's wife. Although Ronald was wearing a green hat, he still did not want to see his wife hurt, and he rushed up to the strange man and tried to grab the pistol.
The two men soon wrestled together, while the woman screamed from the sidelines, not knowing who to help.
Suddenly "bang"! The gun is out of breath! All three of them froze, and then blood came out of the strange man's body. Before the doctor arrived, the strange man died.
If something like this happens around us, it can be said that Ronald is manslaughter, or it can be said to be excessive defense or legitimate defense, and so on.
So what awaits Ronald in the Philippines?
Rizal Prison
After a few days at the police station, Ronald was taken directly to Rizal Prison on the outskirts of Manila, the capital of the Philippines, without any interrogation procedures.
Although the prison probably has something to do with the name of The Founding Father of the Philippines, José Rizal, rizal prison is actually very irregular.
It is not so much a prison as it is an "autonomous territory" for the prisoners.
Because here, the guards have nothing to do, and the prisoners themselves organize and manage most of the affairs in the prison.
The prisoners here are both men and women, and they can not only fall in love with each other, but even marry and have children. But the newcomer Ronald didn't know the inside story.
Ronald
Before Ronald actually stepped through the prison doors, the guards searched him for weapons or drugs, and then built him a rudimentary prison file that could not be found at any time.
Then the prison guard picked up the phone, as if to tell the people in the prison that a new prisoner had come in and asked him to take it.
But to Ronald's surprise, the man who came to take Ronald was not the prison guard he had imagined, but another prisoner, who was also the real boss of the prison, Calito Mori.
Calito has short hair, an undershirt, large pants and slippers, and a watch on his hand.
Sentenced to 20 years in prison for rape a few years ago, the man entered Rizal Prison and somehow became the boss of the "Sponik Gang" in the prison, one of the most famous gangs in Philippine prisons.
When Calito came out, the guards simply glanced at him and didn't say a word, not even with the intention of being defensive. "Come, come with me!" Calito coldly told Ronald that he noticed that Ronald's hands were still handcuffed, so he asked the prison guards to remove the handcuffs.
Ronald touched the handcuffed area on his wrist and carefully followed Calito into the prison. Behind the two men, the guards casually closed the iron door. With the crashing of the latches on the iron door, Ronald's prison life began.
Calito
Many of the prisoners in the cell gathered together with a roar when they saw that a new person had come in, and some of the prisoners were watching TV with their pet cats in their arms, without even twisting their heads.
Calito led Ronald to an empty bed, but instead of letting him lie down and rest, he stood with his back against the wall and reported himself.
Ronald reported his name, age, and why he was imprisoned.
When Ronald had finished, Cattoly began to brief himself on the prison.
The two bunk beds in one cell of the prison constitute a district of four people, each with a district chief, and the prisoners are subject to the orders of the district chiefs, while everyone, including the district chief, is subject to Calito's orders, and any disobedience to the orders is punishable.
At this point, Calito added, "I am also one of the district chiefs. ”
Then he continued: "Don't hurt anyone, don't touch anyone's things. ”
After saying this, Calito asked Ronald to keep these rules in mind, so that life would be better. Ronald nodded vigorously, indicating that he remembered.
Just when Ronald thought it was over, Calito asked, "Do you want to join our group?" Sponnick's Gang? ”
For this gang Ronald had only heard of its name before, he did not expect that it was now close at hand, but he agreed without even thinking about it. After all, the man in front of him made him have a premonition that if he didn't join, there would be no good fruit to eat.
And it is said that Ronald himself had dealt with some gangs before going to prison, and he himself was not a completely clean and unblemished person. Later Ronald was always glad for the choice.
Joining the Spock gang eliminates the need for work, otherwise it is not an easy task to carry water every day and clean up the internal sanitation of the prison.
If you don't join the gang and don't want to work, you have to pay a "protection fee" of 500 pesos a month, about sixty yuan.
This amount of money is not a small amount in the Philippines, and many people cannot come up with it. And if they can't get money, they can only sell their physical strength instead, so they have to do all the chores in prison.
But despite this, if they are not careful, they will still be punished by gang members, including but not limited to confinement, zamabu, etc., and the prison guards will not do anything about it.
Because the usual task of these prison guards is mainly two things, one is to bring prisoners into the prison and hand them over to the leading prisoners, and the other is to avoid escape from prison. As for the internal affairs of the prisoners, they did not care.
The next morning, as the prison wake-up bell rang, Ronald got up. He went to the pool outside the cell to wash up, when he saw the female prisoner.
Ronald couldn't believe his eyes for a while, but soon learned that Rizal Prison was actually a mixed-sex prison.
In addition to more than a hundred male prisoners, there are twenty or thirty female prisoners, and there are also female prisoner bosses there.
Although the women's cell area is separated from the men's cell by an iron fence, there are still opportunities for contact during the daily wind time, and in the so-called "visiting area" of the prison, they can be contacted for a long time, and some male and female prisoners are said to have developed romantic relationships.
Ronald looked at the women in the same prison and remembered his cheating wife, who was now in prison and should soon find a new love.
Thinking of this, Ronald's heart was indignant, and he hoped that the court could try his case as soon as possible and give himself a sentence that met expectations as soon as possible, but now he could only wait and live a good life in front of him.
Because he joined the gang, Ronald did not have to work, but as a newcomer, he was responsible for watching the "second-class citizens" in the prison, that is, those who did not join the gang.
These people rub the floor with their feet on coconut shells and carefully brush the toilets with brushes. Ronald initially had some sympathy for these people, but the thought of when he would be able to get out was unknown, and this sympathy was immediately taken back.
On this day, he also saw other activities of his fellow inmates in prison, such as some people dancing together, and some making small handicrafts to make money.
At night, when the lights went out, the non-existent prison guards came over and roughly nodded their names once and left again.
Life in prison is monotonous and tedious, and even if there is entertainment, it will not arouse people's interest over time.
Ronald was still hopeful about his life at first, as soon as the prison guards looked for him, he thought that the case had progressed, but every time he was disappointed.
And there is also a struggle for power within the gang, and Ronald, as a newcomer, has suffered a lot, and sometimes he has to work with the lowest-level prisoners.
When the head above is unhappy, he will also take out Ronald. But Ronald put up with it and eventually got the favor of the boss Calito. After becoming the boss's right hand man, no one dared to bully him anymore.
Ronald, who was successful in his "career", also gained a feeling. During a long time with a female prisoner, the two fell in love with each other. Coupled with the management of the prison, the female prisoner actually became pregnant with Ronald's child!
Thinking that when Ronald killed people and went to jail because of his wife's cheating, and now he is in prison to find a new love, like this kind of "Sai Weng lost his horse and knew that it was not a blessing", it really made people not know what to say.
In 2016, the female prisoner who was pregnant in October successfully gave birth to a child for Ronald, but Ronald, who became a father, could not be happier at the moment, because he had been in prison for 14 years! However, the case he committed that year was not tried for a long time.
He was desperate to leave prison with his family and start a new life.
I never thought that when the child was three months old, the prison guards brought good news, and the court would soon hear his case! So Ronald began praying every day that he would see the light of day again as soon as possible.
Ronald was transferred
However, to his great disappointment, the judge's sentence was life imprisonment! In other words, in addition to the 14-year sentence that Ronald has already spent, he will continue to stay in prison for at least 11 years!
And the court also handed down a verdict, transferring Ronald to a new, heavily guarded prison.
For Ronald, going to the new prison not only means that he will be separated from his current "wife" and children for a long time, but he also has to climb up from the new person in prison step by step.
As for why such a verdict was given, I am afraid that only the judge and Ronald himself know.
Soon, when the time came, Ronald said goodbye to his fellow inmates who had been with him day and night for many years, and before he left, the inmates also made up some entanglements for him so that he could live better in the new prison, after all, such a "friendly" prison as Rizal Prison was unattainable in the Philippines.
Content Source:
Netflix documentary "Deep into the world's most difficult prison"