Soul Highway

Jailhouse Thriller

The Philippines is on the news again. It always worries when we appear in the foreign media – that usually means a bad thing. The last time we made the headlines some psycho held hostage a busload of school children to bring attention to the country’s poor state of education. Well, this latest incident is more of peculiar (especially to non-Filipinos) than embarrassing.

I usually have my daily dose of Hollywood gossip in the morning while still struggling to get out of bed. I think the timing is perfect – half of my brain cells are usually still in trance-like state at 8 a.m. and watching the latest escapades of Lindsay Lohan or Britney Spears on E! News does not require much of a mental effort. So what put us on the news this time? A video-taped live performance of some 1,500 inmates at the Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center (CPRDC) dancing to the tune of Michael Jackson’s “Thriller.” I think the video premiered on Youtube and was quickly picked up by the media.

Come on, you have to admit that it cracked you up at some point. I was impressed by the near-perfect coordination. But then again if you practice under the watchful eyes of fully-armed jail guards, something good has to come out of it. The husband thought it was a little strange. “Don’t ever tell me again that prisoners in the Philippines are living a hard life!” he said jokingly. I’ve been to the CPDRC a few times when I was still in the Philippines for some interviews. Inmates would stage some kind of presentation for their families and visitors on certain occasions and to break up the monotony of prison life. Well, the CPDRC inmates may not have done justice to Michael Jackson’s video, but this “Jailhouse Thriller” is quite a production number. However weird and crazy it was, those inmates looked like they were giving the performance of a lifetime.

Here's a Reuters story on the dancing inmates - Jailhouse rock: Philippine inmates groove on the Web