Our jails in the Philippines are filled with religious convicts; they are religious because almost all wear rosaries and scapulars around their necks, paste religious pictures in their cell walls, and have tattoos of saints on their bodies. Most of all, they are so religious and self-righteous, 90% of them will not admit their crime.
I met him in my first year as a born-again Christian, in 1994, when we went to the Bible Study ministry that my
church did for prison inmates. They called it Prison Ministry.
The activity involved a prayer and worship service, with singing and a short preaching by our pastor followed by our elders ministering and praying with the inmates. This was done in the session hall where there were pews and a pulpit for the service.
For security reasons, the female members were asked to be seated at the back, near the entrance, in case there was a commotion or an incident. As I sat there with my fellow Christian sisters, a convict silently sat near our pew. His appearance was non-threatening as he looked gaunt and lanky, and his height was barely five feet. He sat quietly almost beside me
and from the corner of my eye, I could gauge he was weighing us up and keenly observing our reception of his intrusion
into our assigned place.
"What is your name?" I asked him to break the uneasiness that had started to creep in on us.
"Corpuz, Mam.." he replied in a soft
husky voice that sounded like he had just recovered from a sore throat. I sized him up and noticed he had a big "slice" wound on his neck, from the back of the nape extending to his Adam's apple. It had just barely healed and still was reddish in appearance although a skin keloid had developed.
"What happened to your neck?" I asked, and was surprised at my fearless
inquisitiveness, barely knowing the man.
"I tried to commit suicide, Mam."
His voice becoming soft and inaudible as his eyes began to avoid my gaze. I felt a rush of compassion for him at that moment, he looked utterly dejected
and weak, so thin and frail and sad.
He looked at the Bible I was holding and
I assumed he wanted to get a hold of it and read. He wore a brown scapular and a rosary around his neck, somehow looking pious with the adornment.
"Why did you try to kill yourself?
What is your case, what have you been convicted of?" My questions fired away like a CNN reporter.
"I'm innocent Mam, I was wrongly accused and convicted because I was poor and could not afford a lawyer.
My case is rape of a minor and my sentence is the death sentence."
Corpuz was almost in tears now and
my companions nudged me to slow down on
the questioning, as he seemed to be upset and we might provoke him to an
unpredictable behavior. I was not afraid of him, I feel danger when it comes and before it strikes, and right then, I was not in danger.
"Would you like to have peace of mind and to be sure where you're going after you die?" I asked, with the intention of sharing the gospel to this wretched soul. My sisters kept quiet
but started to pray for him silently.
Being new to the faith, I was fired up and eager to win souls for the Lord.
"Yes Mam, I do." Corpuz was hooked.
He knew why we were there and how favorable it would be for him to have us new friends from the "outside"
"Alright then, it's simple." I then went on from John 3:16 to Romans 3:23, Romans 6:23 and ended up with John 6:47. Confidently and with much prayerful compassion, I shared the gospel to him and sincerely desired for him to know God. After that, he cried and told me his story.
He said he was a carpenter and was married with three daughters. He worked in the big city on a house construction project for a Chinese client and had to stay far from his family for several months. When he got back to his town,he took time off from work and had a short vacation. He was taking an afternoon nap when the police came to arrest him, the crime was rape. He was jailed immediately and arraigned in court based on the testimony of two child witnesses.
Because of the testimony of the children below ten years old, he was convicted and sentenced to die by lethal injection two years after. His sentence was due to be implemented in a few months when we met him.
He told me he may not be there for long as he will be moved to the maximum security prison in Manila for death- sentenced convicts. He was apprehensive
and anxious about it, and related how his own family had abandoned him and none came to visit him at all.
My co-sisters and I listened with sadness at his story, and before we left
that prison, I gave him my Bible and asked him to write his story and I will
put it in a book I am writing.
"Thank you Mam Cynthia." He was overwhelmed with gratitude and obviously
relieved at the thought. I shook his hand and gave him my writing pad and pen, and we left the place assuring him we will be back after a week.
As scheduled, we were back the next week and the prison inmates fell in line as they entered the session hall.
No Corpuz. We looked around for him and I asked the jail guards if Corpuz was coming. They told me he was moved to the Manila jail but that he left some letters for me. There were three letters.
That night, I read his letters and was shocked by his story. He was a
carpenter alright, and had a wife and three daughters. Yes he worked in Manila for several months, and it was there he met other carpenters from the city, and they gave him drugs to "try".
He did. When his contract was finished,
he went back to the province and tried to hide his habit from his wife.
Fate has a cruel way of hitting the less fortunate, and when one day his wife had to be confined at the hospital, Corpuz found himself sleeping alone and needing a woman. His drug problem got him hooked, and it was during one of those nights that he lost
control and devoured his own daughter.
He said in his letter he did not want it to happen, but it did, and his daughter never told her mother about it.
Corpuz then assumed it was alright with her, or it was what the little girl wanted, that is what he said.
After about three months, the girl started to have morning sickness and
became haggard and thin. She was sleepy most of the time and rarely played with her siblings. The inevitable had happened, she was pregnant and the baby's father was her father, Corpuz.
The girl could not handle her situation, and cried most of the time, she tried to wear loose clothes so that her mother and the neighbors will not notice her condition. But pregnancy can never be hidden and soon enough her family found out. She had uncles, brothers of her mother, in another town, and when they found out, they took jungle bolos (machetes) and sought
to kill Corpuz.
His story was true , partly. He was sleeping in the backyard, on a wooden
bed, when his brother-in-law attacked him from behind. Corpuz was able to duck but the machete cut him on the throat with a surface wound. He could
have been killed if his brother-in-law
was fast enough. The wound came not from a suicide attempt as he had earlier said.
Corpuz ran and hid in the rice fields, but the police had dogs that traced him and he was caught. His wound also prevented him from getting far.
The trial was quick and the witnesses were his own daughters. His wife knew of the crime but preferred to turn a blind eye to all that was happening in her household. The court found him guilty beyond reasonable doubt
and he was given the death sentence.
I never saw Corpuz after that. The last communication I had with him was a letter he sent by mail addressed to my church (the address was written on my Bible cover) and in it he told me he had scarcely eaten his meals because the goons in the maximum prison took all his supplies. He was suffering from tuberculosis and was very weak (his handwriting showed it) and he may not live to take his death sentence. He thanked me for the friendship and asked for prayers, and also asked for God's forgiveness, showing genuine repentance.
Although he was in prison and sentenced to die, Corpuz was set free from the bondage of spiritual blindness to the truth of God, from the chains of sin to the freedom of grace, and from the sentence of death, to the promise of
eternal life with the King of kings,
I recall another convict who did just that, he died on the cross beside the Son of God and went to paradise with Him.
Your stirring story has garnered my admiration for your compassion. I felt Corpuz strung you along. The only pain I'm feeling is the suffering of his daughter.
This was a most heartrending story well told. While it is hard for us, especially mothers to forgive this man for what he did, it is easy for God. May we all be more God-like toward others, who have done horrific things, yet are still the children of God. Thanks for writing this for him. and for letting me read it.
Cynthia
I believe that Gods forgivenes can reach behind prison walls .
Your here story has a brilliant way of bringing that throug .
Paul .
Reviewed by Donald Balsley
3/11/2009
Thanks for reviewing my poem. I read your story about Corpus as well as some poems but what struck me was that one of my daughter-in-laws has a jail ministry here in Rapid City and see just loves it. Some of her story's (though not quit as vivid as yours) are still very touching. God bless, Don
Reviewed by Rich Patriaco
3/8/2009
Very sad story and one day he will find peace in heaven.Five years ago
I heard an audio cassette of a man who gave his life up to God and he now goes to prisons all over the country giving hope to lifers that God will forgive them if they seek his forgiveness.Before this started
he was with The Gambino Crime Family before John Gotti assumed control
he claimed God commanded him to stop what he was doing or he would go straight to hell.You had written that I should pray for Jesus to come into my life he did 5 years ago.I got up on Easter Sunday and sat in my kitchen for 3 hours staring at a picture on the wall of Jesus holding a sheep in his arms I was about to get up and go back to bed I turned my head to the left and he was standing there.He didn't look at me his arms were extended at the picture as if he were pleased.2 months later before I lost someone very dear to cancer we were in the movies watching Mel Gibbsons Passion Of The Christ at the time she had cervical and stomach cancer.During the whipping scene she was in pain holding her stomach,I held her hand and prayed in silence to Jesus and asked him to help her and please don't let her suffer.When we left the movies she told me during the whipping scene she felt a hand on the back of her neck.We were sitting in the balcony and no one
was behind us.One year later the cancer spread to her chest and lungs she told me she had pain at times but she never suffered.Jesus answered my prayer a week before she died she told me God spoke to her and said he was calling her.(She's at peace and in heaven)
Thank you Cynthia
For asking me to read this amazing short story your writing is
Heartfelt and saddens the reader's soul
Crimes of such nature occur more often among the poor
that are forced to sleep in close quarters, for those lucky enopugh
To have a roof over their heads
then the addiction of drugs adds to the insanity they are living through...
Peace be with you
William
Reviewed by randy smith
3/6/2009
Cynthia, The story of Corpuz, is very stiring. I can see the compassion you have for souls. I pray that God deals kindly with Corpuz.we must indeed repent of our sins. and ask Gods forgiveness.
and He will forgive. I know that God is dealing with your heart, for the souls of men. God will reward you for your faithfulness. great story. Your friend in Christ, Randy
Drugs, alcohol, whatever, there is no excuse to defile a child because in the Bible Jesus said that those than scandalize a child should wear a mill stone around the neck and be thrown down a well.
I wonder what he would have said of those that defile their own children. Only God can forgive them, and maybe not.
In June, 2000, two college students — Amy Shute and Jason Burgeson — were approached by a group of men. Forced into the backseat and driven to a remote location, they were murdered in cold blood.
Following this brutal double homicide, Johnston, RI D
