Virtusio Public Relations, Inc.

Bilibid Childhood Memoir Recalls Values Learned from Prisoners and Officials, Show Biz Stars, Riots and Early Faith

A Filipino fictionist recalls in a book of childhood memoirs of the mid-1940 and 1950s having grown up in Bilibid, the country's national prison, and the values he learned from career officials and employees and prisoners themselves.

Romeo P. Virtusio's Bilibid: Growing Up Beneath Prison Walls documents the response of a child, son of a prison employee, to living in close touch with, almost amongst, prisoners, and learning from their parents' high-minded, Christian approach to their treatment and rehabilitation.

"It was an ordinary life, which exposed us directly to men and women who were being punished for various crimes. We were never afraid, we were proud of our humble hardworking parents, and grew up unscathed, and even proud of our curious provenance," Virtusio said.

Dr. Bienevenido L. Lumbera, National Artist for Literature (2006), notes in his Foreword: " 'Bilibid: Growing Up Beneath Prison Walls' is more than a nostalgic return to a hometown or a reliving of the author's youth; what Romeo P. Virtusio is holding out to us, his readers, is a life validated by his encounters with people he loved and a time that so enriched his person."

Virtusio recalls the big prison riots of May 1950, which produced heroes whose stories never got to be told, the careers of penologists Directors Eriberta B. Misa, Sr., Dr. Alfredo M. Bunye, and Eriberto Misa Jr., some of the most colorful prisoners he knew, the showbiz stars whom he saw entertaining prisoners, the chain gang of convicts being marched around the reservation, the colorful Sunday and holiday family visits, and taking first communion from "convict priest" Rizalino Veneracion, the visit of Xavier Cugat and Armi Kuusela, and others..

"I saw some of my movie idols in Bilibid, including Rogelio de la Rosa, Leopoldo Salcedo, Fred Montilla, Virginia Montes, Narding Anzures, and others when I was a kid in Bilibid, when they were entertaining, gratis et amore, our prisoners. They were extremely polite to the officials and prisoners, always saying po, "Virtusio recalls. "No, Narding was there not to entertain; he was a prisoner himself."

Bilibid is a singular institution. The government has approved plans for its transfer from Muntinlupa, where it has been for almost 70 years, to Tanay, Rizal. It is in this light that Virtusio's recollections of the place-- beautiful, placid, and of great significance to the country's justice system--gain added poignancy.

Cover design and inside-page drawings are by by Vancouver-based artist Dominador "Jun" P. Virtusio.

Advance orders for copies of "Bilibid: Growing Up Beneath Prison Walls" may be placed with rpv@virtusio.com