Hong Kong inmates serving lengthy sentences in a Philippine prison where even the most basic necessities have to be bought are anxiously awaiting news about their year-old application for a transfer back home to serve out their jail terms.
The eight prisoners at New Bilibid Prison in Muntinpula city in Manila submitted their applications in February last year, but have yet to hear back from the authorities.
'Many of them have been jailed for a long time here and are getting old,' inmate Tang Lung-wei wrote in a letter to his Hong Kong lawyer, Paul Tse Wai-chun. 'Their only wish is that they don't have to die away from home.'
Tang, who is awaiting a review of a 40-year sentence imposed on him after 11 years of detention, said money was 'the key to everything' in prison, including clothing, food and mobility.
Each prisoner gets a daily allowance of 50 pesos (HK$9) with which to buy two small meals and water.
Free water is available for an hour in the morning but inmates miss out if they cannot beat the competition from thousands of other inmates. In which case, they have to buy showering water at HK$1 per 30 litres and drinking water at HK$6.30 for 20 litres.
Any food in addition to the scant meals has to be bought from a market inside the prison, which sells vegetables, fish, meat and rice.