The Philippines’ Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center (CPDRC) became famous for a viral Michael Jackson dance video in 2007. New Netflix documentary series Happy Jail goes inside the prison wall to document what happens when it comes under the management of ex-convict Marco Toral, sparking controversy and criticism. Michael Hough was a sound recordist on the production. Here he relates his experiences, as told to Ned Kelly.
I’ve been working as a production sound recordist for the last 10 years in Shanghai, and a friend and fellow recordist who was originally booked to do Happy Jail, Terence Lloren, had a scheduling conflict and asked me to sub for half of the production. I ended up being in Cebu for about a month.
Working in the prison was certainly an eye-opening experience for me. It’s hard to explain what the atmosphere was like. From my point of view, and with all the advantages I’ve been given in life, of course the situation in the prison is less than ideal.
That being said, I did get a sense of happiness from several of the inmates, particularly the ones who were involved in the dancing. Through working with many of the inmates and hearing the details of their personal stories, I did gain some serious insight into a lifestyle that was previously unknown to me.
I can’t say that I fully enjoyed it. It was quite dark at times. That’s life though. It did make me more aware of the advantages that growing up as a white male in the US has offered me.
This was a quick interview with official choreographer teacher Vince Rosales inside the lobby of the CPDRC. I believe we were getting his reaction to the governor’s cancellation of the dancing in the prison.
The prison is essentially run by a gang, Batang Cebu. Every inmate is immediately inducted into the gang upon arrival. Of course there are official prison workers, but honestly, from what I witnessed, they don’t deal much with the internal workings of the prison and the inmates. That’s left mostly to the gang.
The gang has a very structured hierarchy of leadership within the prison walls, as well as strict rules and punishments. Marco Toral, a former inmate who was now the prison’s ‘consultant,’ is tasked with more or less bridging the gap between the internal leadership and the officials. Being that Marco was supporting the production, and the internal prison leadership was as well, we were quite well received by the inmates. They were incredibly helpful.
I honestly can’t say the same for many of the prison officials. Marco was in the process of trying to reform the prison staff by bringing in new employees. This caused a bit of a friction between the staff that were loyal to Marco and the ones who were not.
As the production went on and Marco’s influence with the Cebu government began to diminish, we definitely started to lose our welcome with the official prison staff. As the situation escalated, I honestly felt safer inside the prison with the inmates.
After an inmate had cleverly escaped from the prison, Marco Toral received a tip that he was hiding out at his in-laws’ home and was possibly armed. We followed Marco and his team as they raided this rural jungle home, guns out and wearing body armor. After discovering that the inmate was not in fact there, Marco quickly stripped down (he's pictured here shirtless) and hired some local boys from the area to catch and barbeque some wild chickens. We all sat around and enjoyed a sort of ‘block party’ with the family and neighbors... all sponsored by Marco. It was weird.
When it comes to discipline, the punishments are severe, but the system seemed pretty fair, actually. They have strict rules, and punishments that go with each violation. If an inmate is accused of an infraction, they go before the leadership and a ‘jury’ of other inmates, where they can offer their defense. I didn’t see much of this process first hand, but it seemed pretty legit.
Watching a beating in person? Yeah, it was brutal. The most common punishment was just a straight beating. This usually happened behind closed doors and we could only hear the screams from the prison yard. However, on one occasion, for reasons unknown to myself, Marco decided to have them do it for the cameras. None of us were ready for that.
They would lay the inmates face down on a long bench. Two men would then sit on them, one on their shoulders and one on their feet, to hold them down. The guy who dishes out the licks is a very strong dude and he doesn’t hold anything back. He brings it down with full force on the back of the legs right below the butt.
On the first lick the inmates’ bodies just react by instinctively flailing. Sometimes extra men need to sit on them to hold them down. After the third or fourth lick they would just pass out from the pain and go limp.
Afterwards we could see blood on the bench and floor from where the inmates sat after the punishment was delivered. I was told that they would not be able to walk for at least a week. It was hard to watch. Seriously.
For the record, in the series Marco has a paddle that has ‘The Final Option’ written on it. It looks like this is the paddle they use but it’s not. The one they actually use is much worse. It’s essentially just a long ax handle.
This is another shot from the ‘jungle raid.’ Here were are interviewing jail guard Jessie Castañares about the day's events. Jesse was the head of the prison guards for our time there. He was an incredibly kind and helpful guy. He’d always cook us corned beef hash and beans in the morning when we arrived early to film. Jesse was tragically gunned down after we finished filming. I was shocked to hear of his murder. Very sad.
Marco is a character. He’s a funny guy. He’s fine – a pretty nice guy to be honest. He loved to eat. It’s not really in the series, but every time after we’d finish a sequence he say, “Ok, let’s eat!” – no matter how inappropriate it was.
For example, during the sequence where he was hazing the new guards at the pool, he went down the line of blindfolded newbies kicking and paddling them into the pool. After he kicked the last guy in, he jumped into the pool himself, swam underwater to where the camera was, came up out of the water (full ‘80s Baywatch slo-mo style) and said, “Ok, let’s eat!”
He’s a funny guy. That being said, I did get a sense that there was more going on with him than what we were seeing. The series hits hard on the fact that he was an inmate before. The official story was that he was framed… I have no idea if that’s true or not. On one hand, almost everyone says that they were framed – insert Shawshank Redemption quote – but on the other hand, the police are very corrupt, so there’s really no way to know for sure. For what it’s worth, I liked him.
In terms of contraband, from what I saw the jail seemed pretty clean. I arrived on location right after a ‘crackdown’ though. Some of the production team told me that they saw more evidence of drug usage before I arrived. Some of the inmates that we interviewed admitted that they were users and that they couldn’t get any drugs at that time. For at least the month that I was there, the prison was clean.
As for whether the inmates really enjoy the dancing? I think they do, yeah. I’ve had a lot of folks ask me if they were forced to dance. If they were, I honestly didn’t see it. There were loads of inmates who don’t participate in the dancing. You can see them in the cells while the dancing is going on.
It certainly seems that the ones who participate enjoy it. Of course the ‘lead dancers’ are into it. It’s quite tough to be selected as a lead dancer, so they’re very serious about it. When the governor cancelled the dance due to the events that unfolded (you’ll have to watch the series to find out what they were) I did notice a dip in morale throughout the prison.
To watch a trailer for ‘Happy Jail,’ click here.
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