JOY

BJMP, Kalunasan, Guadalupe, Cebu City was the main setting of this fatherly-love story of Joy
Villarico, where he’s able to make his eldest child graduate despite being detained in a cell through an art
of rolling.

Six years ago, Joy was an unemployed, drug addict father of his two children. Under the influence
of his own vices and life’s penury, he committed the crime of stealing and murder. Due to this, he was
sentenced by the court of a lifetime imprisonment and was unable to carry out his obligations as the “Padre
de Pamilya”.

The first year of being imprisoned was tolerable for him. He was visited by his wife with his
children every weekend. He didn’t even consider his situation as “being in jail”. As long as his family
frequently comes, the jail becomes a home. His family made him realized that he failed being a father and a
husband – that he should’ve been a father and a husband in the first place, because the longer time he is
confined in a cell, the longer the relationship gap he had with his wife.

Years later, his wife stopped visiting him. His wife left their children. His wife got tired of their cold
and dull marriage. Joy became the last hope of his seven and eighteen year old daughters – a hopeless
hope. Taking advantage of his self, being the cell mayor, he made an artistic business with the outside
world. Together with other prisoners, Joy created pirate ships, helicopter, houses, jeeps, etc. out of rolled
papers and sold it between the ranges of P150 - P1000. The income he got out of this creativeness is spent
for his eldest child’s tuition fee for college.

Joy is immensely evident in the face of his 18 year old daughter everytime the money from his
sweat and hard work is handed off. For him, seeing her daughter hopeful makes him even more hopeful to
live a longer life even in prison.. For six years, he has been crafty to provide until she graduated college.
And he is still willing to roll thousands of papers to also fulfil his second daughter’s dream until his last
breath and until the last piece of paper is rolled out.

“I may not live joyous, but it’s okay, as long as I live as Joy – the father of Johanna, and Junnise
Villarico.” – he said on an interview.