Jailed for Four Months

Our cottage house remains unfinished. I have bought ceramic tiles for the toilets and patio but we have no tiler.    “Madali lang yan, tatawagin ko si P.”    My husband keeps telling me to buy the tiles so that when his guy comes, all materials are ready. This guy installed the tiles at Makati Ford, Ford EDSA, and in some areas at Ford Cainta. Edmund is more confident giving him projects because Pan already knows my husband’s style.  Kabisado na nya gusto ni Edmund.

A few months ago,  Pan’s wife called up my husband asking for help.  She told Edmund that  P was picked up by the police and thrown into jail.  The police had been looking for a certain person who stabbed his co-worker to death a few years ago while they were having a drinking session.  Both worked at the factory warehouse.    P has the same name as the accused.   When the police asked around for this person’s name,  they pointed to P.    P apparently is aware that he has a namesake from the same barrio.  But P had never worked in that warehouse.  He’s been living in Manila long before the crime happened.

Dagdag malas,  when a witness was presented,  he pointed to P as the one who stabbed the guy.

There was another witness.   And this guy was really the one who actually saw the crime as it happened but he was missing.  He disappeared and never returned to work.  Siguro natakot dahil sya ang witness.

When my husband told me about what happened to P,  we both said kawawa naman.  P didn’t kill that guy and now he could rot in jail.  It was a case of mistaken identity.  Kawawa naman sya at yung pamilya nya.   What can we do?  I told Edmund that if he wants to hire a lawyer to defend P, w e need less expensive lawyers otherwise we would be spending a considerable amount of money.   I mentioned the Public Attorneys Office (PAO).  Edmund contacted his  friends,  Atty. Jed Roy and Atty. Gino  to ask for their opinion.  They too mentioned PAO.

Edmund sent money to the wife of P for their sustenance.

Two weeks ago,  P showed up at Edmund’s office.  He was miraculously released by the police.

The police themselves proved that they picked up the wrong guy.  That P was innocent.   Ay swerte.

He spent four solid months in jail.  Being jailed for something he didn’t do and having no money to hire a defense lawyer could lose one’s hope.  He slept while standing-up because there was no more space to even sit down.   Staying in a filthy room with hundreds of men literally and figuratively dikit-dikit like sardines,  inhaling stale air, no ready drinking water and food,  kawawa sya talaga and so are the others who are in jail for crimes they didn’t commit.

The wife of P didn’t know that P had been released from jail.   When P excitedly went home on that same day to surprise his wife,  he saw cigarette buts on the night table in their bedroom and other tell tale signs that there could be a man living in their room. P doesn’t smoke.

He told Edmund that when his wife stopped visiting him when he was in jail he already knew.  “Sir, nung tumigil sya ng pagbisita sa akin, alam ko na, kutob ko na.”

The good news?  He’s back and he’s installing our patio floors.