MANILA, Philippines—What did I tell you? Confining child rapist and prison escapee Romeo Jalosjos in the San Ramon Penal Colony in his home province of Zamboanga del Norte is like throwing the turtle into the river. That’s what he wants. And as predicted, it is like a fiesta in the penal colony as supporters flock to it to see if their idol was changed by his stay in Munti. (He has; he has become fatter.)

Prison officials are not limiting the visitors, despite the risk. Jalosjos can hold a political rally there and they wouldn’t put up a finger in protest. The news is that Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez has dismissed Bureau of Corrections Director Ricardo Dapat. Dapat lang. Maybe he should do the same to San Ramon officials. The way our prison officials are coddling Jalosjos is putting to ridicule our prisons and our justice system. And maybe encouraging other criminals to rape children and escape from prison.

In fact, Malacañang and the Department of Justice may be in on it. President Macapagal-Arroyo’s order that Jalosjos should not be released until he turns 70, Gonzalez’s order not to release him, and Jalosjos’ confinement in Zamboanga instead of Munti may all be a moro-moro—all part of a plan to deceive the public.

When the people became angry at the announcement that the convicted rapist sentenced to two life terms would be prematurely released before Christmas, Malacañang had to backtrack. The President must not be perceived as a coddler of child rapists, especially because she is a woman. Releasing the visiting GI who raped a Filipina to the American Embassy was bad enough. Pardon for Jalosjos makes it worse.

But maybe GMA has already given her word to Jalosjos that he would be a free man by Christmas. Maybe GMA cannot afford to displease him. He may start singing about what happened in his province during the 2004 elections.

So a script has to be written for a win-win solution. GMA must not be seen as soft on criminals with two life sentences. So Jalosjos should not be able to waltz out of prison just like that. That will please the public. But to please Jalosjos and his supporters (remember, politics is addition), the prisoner must be able to fulfill his boast to his supporters that he would be with them before yearend.

But how can he go home to Zamboanga if he is still a prisoner in Munti? So, he was allowed to dance out of Munti without the guards stopping him, and he was taken by his bodyguards to the domestic airport where a private plane flew him to Zamboanga. The anger of Malacañang and Gonzalez may all have been just for show. Even the dismissal of Dapat may be part of that show (“Pasensya ka na muna, pare”). And so perhaps was Jalosjos’ rearrest by the police.

The smoking gun is that instead of being taken back to Munti and placed in the bartolina like all other escaped prisoners, Gonzalez and Malacañang allowed him to be taken to the San Ramon Penal Colony where he would be near his family and friends. In fact, Jalosjos may be allowed to leave it during the day and come back at night, and perhaps not even. All these could be part of the plan.

But people cannot be fooled all the time. The arrangement is highly unusual. First of all, penal colonies are for prisoners on good behavior. Escaping from prison (which is what Jalosjos did, whatever his lawyers say to justify it) is not “good behavior” anyway you look at it. It is very bad behavior, and other prisoners who did that, when recaptured, were immediately placed in isolation in the prison they escaped from, with all their privileges withdrawn, and another six years of imprisonment added to the original sentence. So why is this escaped rapist being treated by the justice department like he has a halo over his head? Very unusual, di ba?

In the second place, Jalosjos has shown that he is a flight risk. Penal colonies are only for those who are not flight risks, as they are like prisons without bars. So why is Jalosjos allowed to hold his own fiesta in San Ramon?

The only way the people can be convinced that GMA and Gonzalez are not part of the conspiracy is for them to order that Jalosjos be taken back to Munti immediately, placed in isolation. In addition, they should withdraw all his privileges and charge him with trying to escape so that another sentence will be added to his two life terms. GMA should also withdraw the executive clemency she gave Jalosjos because he has shown very clearly that he does not deserve it. He has shown no remorse, he has not reformed, and is still as arrogant as ever. He is still a menace to society, especially to children.

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The other moro-moro that goes on at this time of the year is the one performed by the police. That is the farce of putting masking tape on the barrels of the service firearms of policemen, all in the full glare of television and still cameras. That is to prevent, kuno, the cops from firing their guns during the New Year’s Eve merrymaking. Many innocent people have been killed by stray bullets from guns shot into the air on New Year’s Eve. As if the tapes will prevent that.

What’s to stop cops from firing their guns nevertheless and then putting new tapes on the barrels of their guns? What about the gun-crazy civilians who fire their guns to show off to their neighbors? One way to stop them is for law-abiding citizens, neighbors or not, to report these trigger-happy crazies, cops or not, and for the police to charge them with illegal discharge of firearms, and for the courts to send them to jail, not just order them to pay fines.