Some 200 inmates of the New Bilibid Prisons (NBP) in Muntinlupa City are getting a chance to pursue their education inside the national penitentiary and are now taking up business management courses.
Sponsored by the University of Perpetual Help (UPH), in cooperation with the Bureau of Corrections (BuCor), the outreach program, which started in 1984, aims to help inmates prepare for their eventual release from the national penitentiary through accredited classes that could help earn them diplomas.
"This could help them easily earn a living and be re-integrated into society upon their eventual release from prison," said Assistant Solicitor General lawyer Karl Miranda, a lecturer at the university.
The inmates, who finished high school before they were convicted of various crimes and sent to NBP, go through the same four-year program offered in UPH.
However, only business courses are offered to inmates.
Miranda, who is one of the volunteer professors teaching the inmates, said classes are held every Saturday at the Camp Sampaguita Building in the medium security compound of the NBP.
Students, including inmates in their 50s, are housed at an exclusive building and are obliged to delist their names from their previous gang.
They have had received lectures from notable personalities and professionals in the last schoolyear.
Among the previous lecturers were Sen. Aquilino Pimentel Jr., Justice Secretary Raul Gonzales, Labor Secretary Patricia Sto. Tomas and Trade Undersecretary Nelly Favis-Villafuerte.
Pimentel, who was a political prisoner during the Marcos regime, has vowed to work on expediting the passage of laws that would encourage employers to give incentives or opportunities to former prisoners.
According to Miranda, the senator also said he would push for the revision of the revised penal code, which was created in 1930.
Manila Archbishop Gaudencio Rosales and mall tycoon Henry Sy Sr. have also given inspirational messages to the student inmates.
Yesterday, students received lectures from Washington Sycip, founder of the Sycip, Golez and Velayo Accountancy Group and journalist Joan Orendain.
Sycip admitted that his father, one of the founders of China Bank, had been an inmate at the NBP during the Japanese occupation, "which is why this place is close to my heart."
He gave lectures on the competence of Filipinos in business and shared some of his secrets of his success.
Orendain, on the other hand, taught the inmates lessons on effective writing and distributed booklets to the students.
She has also urged students to write their own life stories, which she said she should compile in a book. Sycip volunteered to sponsor the publishing of the book.
"They are lucky because they have this opportunity for free. Not even students of the most prestigious universities get the chance to meet these successful people," Miranda said.