By: Fr. Robert Reyes
My parents came towards lunch time. They were jubilant and full of optimism. They were aglow with the many happy turns of the morning at the Makati Regional Trial Court. Thank God, my parents are allowed to exercise the right to visit their son. Human rights still exist. I have not been totally isolated from the rest of society because of my contact with visitors from the church, lawyers and family and a few friends. Yet, a good number of friends have not been allowed to enter the custodial center. They were told “Only immediate family, parents, siblings, wife and children.” I have often complained that my status is peculiar- as a priest, I have no wife or children, even my relative, my own siblings have already migrated, my sisters in the States, my youngest brother in Canada. How many friends has been turned away leaving some “pasalubong” with a note of encouragement to cheer me up. I am more than cheered. I know how so many would visit if it were not too difficult, if the idea of the “custodial center in camp Crame were not that fearful and threatening”.
On the 11th Day of detention, Human Rights Day. I assert and affirm the right to a meaningful and fruitful life. I have affirmed this right in the past years through my constant and consistent appeal for a society of truth and decency, justice and equality, freedom and idealism.
In the last eleven days, I have spent my life with those who dream of a new Philippines rid of those who spread the darkness of greed and deception; a new Philippines breathing the air of genuine peace without the phantoms of arms, and foreign intervention; a new Philippines whose leaders are guided by conscience and a spirituality that recognizes and rejects the demons of compromise, corruptions and cronyism.
To you our relatives, friends and fellow dreamers, we offer our little sacrifice in detention. We offer you our perseverance, patience, good humor and most of all our undying optimism and hope.
One day, we shall all see and celebrate the Light…
Fr. Robert Reyes
December 10, 2007
International Human Rights Day
PNP Custodial Center, Camp Crame
My parents came towards lunch time. They were jubilant and full of optimism. They were aglow with the many happy turns of the morning at the Makati Regional Trial Court. Thank God, my parents are allowed to exercise the right to visit their son. Human rights still exist. I have not been totally isolated from the rest of society because of my contact with visitors from the church, lawyers and family and a few friends. Yet, a good number of friends have not been allowed to enter the custodial center. They were told “Only immediate family, parents, siblings, wife and children.” I have often complained that my status is peculiar- as a priest, I have no wife or children, even my relative, my own siblings have already migrated, my sisters in the States, my youngest brother in Canada. How many friends has been turned away leaving some “pasalubong” with a note of encouragement to cheer me up. I am more than cheered. I know how so many would visit if it were not too difficult, if the idea of the “custodial center in camp Crame were not that fearful and threatening”.
On the 11th Day of detention, Human Rights Day. I assert and affirm the right to a meaningful and fruitful life. I have affirmed this right in the past years through my constant and consistent appeal for a society of truth and decency, justice and equality, freedom and idealism.
In the last eleven days, I have spent my life with those who dream of a new Philippines rid of those who spread the darkness of greed and deception; a new Philippines breathing the air of genuine peace without the phantoms of arms, and foreign intervention; a new Philippines whose leaders are guided by conscience and a spirituality that recognizes and rejects the demons of compromise, corruptions and cronyism.
To you our relatives, friends and fellow dreamers, we offer our little sacrifice in detention. We offer you our perseverance, patience, good humor and most of all our undying optimism and hope.
One day, we shall all see and celebrate the Light…
Fr. Robert Reyes
December 10, 2007
International Human Rights Day
PNP Custodial Center, Camp Crame
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