Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center also known by its initials CPDRC is a maximum security prison in Cebu, in the Cebu Province, the Philippines.
Byron Garcia, the official security advisor to the Cebu government who was assigned as head of the prison by Gwendolyn Garcia, governor of Cebu Province is credited for starting a program of choreographed exercise routines for the inmates. The prison is best known worldwide for their version of Michael Jackson's Thriller video. They have followed that with many other dance routines of popular songs. The prison management has also released a video explaining the concept behind the prison management at CPDRC.
Beginnings
Byron F. Garcia originally wanted to introduce a program at Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center (CPDRC) where inmates would exercise for an hour each day. He saw waves of prisoners in the exercise yard and thought it looked good. He also claims in a British documentary that his inspiration came while watching the movie The Shawshank Redemption in particular the scene where the sounds of Mozart's Figaro flood the prison yard.
click here to see the video....Garcia initially introduced an exercise program where the prisoners marched in unison, starting out with marching to the beat of a drum, but moved on to dancing to pop music; he began with one of his favourite songs, Pink Floyd's "Another Brick in the Wall (Part 2)". He chose camp music such as In The Navy and Y.M.C.A. by The Village People, so macho prisoners would not be offended at being asked to dance.
Garcia's first upload of prisoner choreography was the Algorithm March, but this was almost entirely ignored. But the next upload Thriller had a massive response.
The prison now even has its own official choreographer teachers, like Vince Rosales and Gwen Laydor. Some prisoners are chosen more prominently for more sophisticated routines while the general prison population (sometimes up to 1500 inmates) participate with simpler more accessible routines.
Thriller viral video
Main article: Thriller (viral video)
Thriller was uploaded on July 17, 2007. It was a YouTube remake of Michael Jackson's original "Thriller" music video.
Crisanto Nierre plays Michael Jackson's role in the video. The openly gay inmate Wenjiel Resane plays the role of Michael Jackson's girlfriend. Both Crisanto Nierre and Wenjiel Resane enjoy popularity amongst YouTube fans and their faces usually highlighted quite often in most later videos.
On December 19, 2007, in an article on "Most Popular Viral Videos", Time Magazine placed the inmates' Cebu Thriller as 5th in its Top 10 list. Time's stated description of the prisoners was: "Orange-jumpsuited accused murderers, rapists and drug dealers paid homage to Michael Jackson's Thriller in a dance performance filmed at the Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center in the Philippines (CPDRC).
Public performances
On October 6, 2007, Archbishop Ricardo Cardinal Vidal visited CPDRC for the first time, and the prisoners performed six dances for him, as part of the celebration of the Prison Awareness Month; the Archbishop noted, "It was a marvelous show of discipline. If only they had practiced that (discipline) in their lives, they wouldn’t be here.”
Some chosen inmates of CPDRC (about 20 in number) performed a surprise show (a medley of "Thriller", "Jump" and "Radio Gaga") in front of the Cebu Capitol. This performance was a request by the inmates as their contribution to the 438th Founding anniversary celebration. The Governor and Provincial Officials were so moved that they included all 1500 inmates in the giving of the mid-year bonus for Capitol employees. Each inmate was given 1,000 Philippines pesos ($US 22) an incentive for good behavior.
On December 27, 2007, Vice Mayor Michael Rama, acting mayor of Cebu City, noted the inmates’ request to be in the Sinulog Festival as Sinulog Foundation executive director Ricky Ballesteros informed the former of the possibility of CPDRC’s participation. Cebu Governor Gwen Garcia took part in some of the dancing exercises with the prisoners.
A performance of the "Thriller" routine at Cebu City's Founding Day celebrations resulted in a donation of 1.6 million pesos. Each inmate received 1000 pesos.
"Together in Electric Dreams" by Philip Oakey and Giorgio Moroder, and Ice Ice Baby by Vanilla Ice were presented during the provincial governor Gwendolyn Garcia visit to the prison, on her birthday in October. A competition was held amongst the prisoners as to who would take the lead role of Vanilla Ice in the dance.
Starting April, 2008, Cebu provincial inmates' live dances are open to visitors who watch from the higher corridors the dance routines. After the 2 hour monthly program (done on certain Saturdays), visitors can have their pictures taken with the prisoners and buy souvenir prison shirts.
Following Jackson's death in 2009, they performed a tribute to Jackson in front of hundreds of spectators at the prison. 1,500 CPDRC inmates performed an entire nine-and-a-half minute show of choreographed dance moves to various Michael Jackson songs on Saturday, June 27, as a loving tribute to the singer. The Filipino inmates put the show together just 10 hours after receiving word that Jackson had died.
The Queen Medley comprising of a mix of 8 Queen songs notably includes the performance of popular gay/transvestite prisoner Wenjiel Resane dressed as a ballerina performing a major routine. Wenjiel was most famous for his performance in "Thriller" with prisoner Crisanto Nierre. The CPDRC 8-minute long group performance of Queen songs ends with the appeal "Peace to mankind" and a quotation from Byron F. Garcia: "If we make life like a living hell for these fallen angels, then we might just be turning out devils once they are released and re-integrated into society".
Grease Lightning was performed on November 28, 2009 on the third anniversary of a shooting at CPDRC between feuding gangs. The lead dancing privilege was given to Arabo, one of the surviving gang leaders at that particular deadly feud. It was a farewell performance by inmate Arabo before being transferred to Manila's Muntinlupa prison to serve three consecutive life sentences for a triple murder he was convicted of. He has to serve a minimum of 90 years before being ever released.
click here to see the video....PS: This is what makes pinoy talents discovered. Every pinoy has its seed of greatness just give them the opportunity and they will exce. Proad Pinoytransformers!!!
