It was a perfect night out with my hubby, Jason and our son, Joshua. We were playing on the grass, kicking the ball, looking at the moon and stars, feeling the breeze and breathing in the fresh air while all around us were acacia trees silhouetted against a dramatic dark blue sky. Then I got a text from my dad saying he was in a meeting and that my former thesis adviser, Ray Salvosa happened to be in the same room. I haven't seen him for a long, long time and was excited to see he was doing well, much better than what I last heard about his condition. He was the same as ever -- full of life and ideas. He saw my son and said for us to enjoy this age because once they hit thirteen, they're gone.
Ray was my thesis adviser when I was finishing up my Masters in Community Development. That was the period in my life when I wanted to save the world until I came across a massive roadblock called reality check. But people like Ray are still up and at it -- saving the world. There was not much internet then when I knew him but today it's so easy to get a mouthful about what Ray is all about so I just cut and paste a part of a long interview in a website.
Jay-r Patron: I was reading through your bio and I’ve noticed a lot of accolades and awards honored in to you. What do you think has given you the most fulfillment out of all those plaques?
Ray Salvosa: I have those plaques there because I don’t know where to put them. Honestly, it’s not the awards or the work. It’s having three sons and seeing my sons turn out to be good, decent young men. The story is not yet finished. My eldest son is 27. He works for a call center. He graduated from La Salle. My second son served in the US Army, two years in Iraq. My third son is an Ateneo law student.
They are nice, young, decent men and I am most proud of that, to me, my greatest accomplishment. In terms of my professional career, just looking at the impact that these programs… it was the same way when I was teaching. When someone comes to me years later and says, “Sir, you were my professor at UP or UC. I just want you to know how much I appreciate…” Sa akin (to me), that’s the best… to have impact on the mind of a young person, to have altered a life for the better. In effect, while I am not directly involved in the nitty gritty of the programs, passing that Juvenile Justice bill, conceptualizing that I mean, had a great impact. Coming up with this film (Bunso) and the way it changed attitudes, although this was a collective effort. But things like that. Occasionally seeing a life saved or changed is I think the best… you don’t need to see in a plaque or…
Jay-R Patron: What is it about juvenile justice and childwelfare that you are in to? Why children?
Ray Salvosa: Maybe it was sort of an accident. My brother was murdered. My youngerst brother was murdered in 1990 by seven people, two of them were teenagers.
Jay-R Patron: How old was he?
Ray Salvosa: My youngest brother was 41. he had five children. That consumed really a big part of my life. That was a life changing event. Police was totally ineffective in the way they handled the case, and I swore I wouldn’t rest until we got these killers. So I organized my own vigilante group in 1990 and we went after them and we got them. We found my brother’s killers, we were able to arrest them. We turned them over to the law. They were tried and all sentenced to life in prison after we ascertained they were the ones. 100 percent they were the ones. It’s a long story but I saw there was, when I looked at these people who did that, when you look at their lives they are born in poverty, dysfunctional family, they were on the streets by the time they were five or six years old, no meaningful adults in their lives, they were surviving from one foster family or caregiver to another. Walang focus. They were constantly hungry, begging, stealing to be able to feed themselves. It does not justify it but that’s the reality of poverty, that’s the violence of poverty. And by the time they grew up, somewhere along the line their paths crossed with my brother’s and my brother was dead. And I just thought, what if someone had intervened in the lives of these young men, someone took charge of their lives, took care of them, give them the values they should have had—the same way I raised my children—would my brother be alive today? And that’s what I saw in the juvenile justice system. I saw a whole generation of children, as young as 9, being arrested, thrown in jail, mixed with adults, being abused in jail—maybe because they committed a mistake, maybe because they were poor, maybe because they didn’t know any better. When you’re hungry you’re going to eat, you’re going to need to eat. And if you have to steal to be able to do that, you’ll do it. The ends justify the means. No one told them it was wrong to steal. If someone had intervened in the lives of these two young men, especially, these two very young guys who were involved in my brother’s murder, my brother may well be alive. And so my intervention in that area. That’s why I was the one who put juvenile justice on the agenda of Consuelo Foundation. At that time it wasn’t. And I said if I am going to join, juvenile justice would have to be one of the programs we’ll do because I wanted to address the plight of many of these kids. I think we have been somewhat successful. We’re no where near where we should be but I think we have taken a major first step. And part of that is a personal reason, you do it not so much to really help others. I did it for a personal reason, partly to give meaning to my brother’s death, that something good would come out of it. I could have just had those guys salvaged. I had the power at that time. I could do it. I had them. I was the one who turned them over to the police. We didn’t have to, but we did. But that’s also what I saw when we looked at… after I talked to them. I talked to each one of them and I saw what you were dealing with. It’s “There but for the grace of God go I”. Had I been born in the same situation would I be where I am today or would I be out there in the streets committing murder, theft, robbery? So whatever I do in a sense, I did for a selfish reason. I did it to give meaning to my brother’s death, but also to ensure that my own kids will be safe. For every child we turn away from a life of crime, we could save a daughter from being raped, another son or brother from being murdered, another family from being robbed, another life from being destroyed. We cannot begin to count, because if you look at the continuum, a child who turns bad or who commits a mistake and he’s put to jail with no counseling—you’ve seen our jails. If you see this film you will be shocked. He probably commit anywhere between one to 50 crimes by the time he’s 30—cellphone snatching, drug pushing, robbery, burglary, rape, murder. It doesn’t stop until… and you can turn. Majority of these kids are really not bad. If you grew up in a good family, you are what you are mainly because your family raised you, your parents raised your life. And when I was teaching, I thought I was doing that. I thought I was teaching kids—because I was teaching political philosophy—it’s the same thing here. I’m still teaching but in a different subject, a different note. Like I said, most of the time you really end up… in the end, your worse fear is that it becomes just a job. This becomes just a job where I go in 8 to 5. I bring nothing else but then I collect my salary every 15 days.
