A YouTube video has made stars of its dancing inmates, writes Clifford Coonanin the Philippines
A pair of suspected drug traffickers in the central Philippine city of Cebu are giving Michael Jackson a run for his money. With nearly 11 million hits, it's one of the most watched YouTube videos ever - 1,500 orange-suited inmates, plus one pony-tailed prisoner in mules and a halter top, in a Philippine detention centre doing a perfectly choreographed version of the dance sequence of Jackson's Thriller video.
The footage on the video-sharing site of the groovy inmates at Cebu Detention and Rehabilitation Centre was uploaded to YouTube in mid-July by Byron Garcia, a security consultant working at the Cebu provincial government, who also happens to be the brother of Governor Gwendolyn Garcia.
Michael Jackson's role is played by Crisanto Niere, with Wenjiel Resane playing "the girl". Most of the inmates are behind bars awaiting trial for serious crimes such as murder, rape and drug trafficking. One of the prison's top choreographers is a transsexual facing charges of methamphetamine dealing.
Garcia introduced dancing in April 2006 as part of a new rehabilitation programme at the detention centre in this resort city, which is the second largest in the Philippines. The prisoners exercise from 6.30am to 8am and again from 4pm to 5pm. They have also performed dance versions of Another Brick in the Wall by Pink Floyd and a number of Village People tracks. Electric Dreams by the Human League is another favourite.
Dancing is compulsory, and Garcia has been accused of exploiting the prisoners to advance his own career, but he insists the inmates needed little convincing to join in the choreographed spectacles.
There is less gang-related violence among the inmates since the dance therapy sessions have started and they are fitter, said Garcia, who is earning a reputation as a prison reformer in the Philippines. Other jails around the country are now introducing dance into their physical exercise regimens.
The next step for Garcia was to see if the prisoners would be allowed to perform tomorrow at the popular local Sinulog festival, saying that it would add "something new to the traditional Sinulog presentation". But Cebu City mayor Tomas Osmena was unmoved by the step-perfect rendering of the 1980s pop classic.
"I will not allow it even if Michael Jackson joins them. In jail, the inmates can dance all they want," Osmena told the Philippine News Agency.
Garcia had sent a letter to the local government suggesting ways for the dancing inmates to perform at the "free interpretation" category of Sinulog, a nine-day fiesta celebration organised by the Catholic Augustinian order which honours the infant Jesus with a solemn religious procession, followed by a raucous street party.
Unavoidably in the beauty pageant-obsessed Philippines, Sinulog also features a beauty contest. And a trade fair. Partying for the festival has already started in Cebu - bands of dancers with drums and whistles are doing the rounds of hotels and bars in the city, days before the Mardi Gras-style festival starts.
The Philippines is one of the most musical countries in the world - people walk around the streets singing away happily in the normal course of the day, and Filipino bands are coveted the world over for their skill in mimicking top tunes.
Clearly with so many potentially dangerous criminals among their number, security would be a big issue. To make sure none of the Thriller stars made a break for freedom, the show would be performed at the city's sport complex, rather than at the street parade itself, and just 100 prisoners would take part, with a guard assigned to each detainee.
Garcia hoped by allowing the inmates to take part in Sinulog, the city could showcase the success of its rehabilitation programme.
"By showing these highly disciplined inmates to the rest of our fellow Cebuanos locally and internationally, then perhaps, we might just be giving hope to the people that after all Cebu is not just about the mardi gras, but rather, Cebu is about leadership and good governance," he said.
The prisoners were expected to provide stiff competition for the Lumad Basakanon group, which has dominated the free interpretation category of Sinulog for the past two years, local media in Cebu reported.