Dancing to Michael Jackson not so thrilling to Filipino prisoners

Posted By Christine Y. Chen Thursday, August 16, 2007 - 10:30 AM Share

Remember our blog post about those 1,500 prisoners in the Philippines who were jamming out to Michael Jackson's "Thriller"? Well, ABC News went behind the scenes and visited the Cebu province prison to find out how it all got made.

They talk to warden Byron Garcia, who conceived of the routines for prison yard exercise and YouTube fame (and whose sister happens to be the local governor). Are the prisoners actually enjoying themselves? According to a journalist interviewed by ABC who has visited the prison, the enforced dancing may actually be a violation of their human rights. He says:

I think Byron sees his prisoners as his dancing monkeys.

Garcia, however, thinks everything is copacetic:

We have a good relationship. Whatever I tell them to do, they do.

Check out the ABC News video here:

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