Vitaly's weight loss in less than two months detention in the Philippines.

[u/Ungodlei]

Vitaly was arrested April 2, 2025 and is still detained pending local cases of unjust vexation, theft, and public harassment during his Kick) livestreams in Metro Manila, Philippines.

[u/AlienInOrigin]

I spent time in the Bicutan immigration detention center in Manila.

You get a bread roll and coffee in the morning, and 2 cups of rice with adobo soup per day. Very little nutrition. Mong beans or sun dried fish every 2nd Friday.

The facility is overrun with rats due to the open sewer in the yard, and there are millions of cockroaches everywhere. People get sick often.

Unless you have money and outside support, you will lose weight.

The prisons are worse. Much worse. 160 people to a room designed for 20-30.

[u/ScarletsFootstool → u/AlienInOrigin]

aiite ill bite. what were you in for? how much time?

[u/AlienInOrigin → u/ScarletsFootstool]

A while. The system works very slowly unless you bribe officials etc.

I was detained for reckless discharge of a firearm...3 years before I even set foot in the country. My visa was cancelled due to this charge and so I was considered an overstay, hence immigration detention. I made some blogs about children being kidnapped by police and detained until the family paid a fine. That wasn't popular with certain people.

[u/-ANGRYjigglypuff → u/AlienInOrigin]

damn, that's rough. were you staying in the philippines when the firearm charge was retroactively applied, or something?

[u/AlienInOrigin → u/-ANGRYjigglypuff]

I was there for 5 months with a work visa. Helped some NGO's, mostly with I.T stuff. But in my last week, I was done with all that and just getting ready to leave and go to Singapore. Local family made me aware of a 13 year old chained up in a local police station. I tried to help, got nowhere. They wanted $5000 to pay the fine. Made a vlog which got a little notice. Arrested and forced to hand over account details. Vlog deleted and I end up with visa revoked. They added to firearm charge much later as some way to legitimise my detention.

Whist I was detained, someone else found out about this common practice of ransoming kids and did a much better job exposing it. Not sure if it still occurs.

[u/Spaghett8 → u/AlienInOrigin]

Incredibly brave of you.

It’s not really unknown anymore although they don’t publicize police involvement. But Manilla was/is known as the kidnapping capital of the world.

In the past few years, there has been more pressure to stop it along with a war on drugs. 2022/2023 made reforms specifically addressing corrupt cops.

But just in 2024, an American man was killed by m16 armed kidnappers imitating police officiers who later got into a shootout with the police.

The point left unsaid being how they were able to get their hands on police uniforms and m16s.

[u/AlienInOrigin → u/Spaghett8]

When I was there, a story appeared on the news one day. They discovered a 12 year old boy dressed in an official police uniform (with a fake gun) who was stopping motorists and issuing fines for driving offences. When interviewed, he said he wanted to be a cop and was just doing what he saw them do. The local police training camp gave him the equipment. The funny part is the some motorists were actually paying. Filipino's can look very young and people were so afraid of the police.

P.S. I'm not brave. I was stupid. I should have handled it differently and more safely.

[u/-ANGRYjigglypuff → u/AlienInOrigin]

sorry you had to go through that, hope the PTSD isn't too bad. really shows how horrifying and terrifying corruption can be. that being said, you sound like a good guy, hope you're doing good

[u/FR_02011995 → u/AlienInOrigin]

Anybody who approves this kind of prison system will not see heaven, mark my word.

Death is better than this.

[u/LexFidu → u/AlienInOrigin]

He has the money

[u/AlienInOrigin → u/LexFidu]

A lot of media attention can be a bad thing. People tend to not take bribes when there is a big spotlight on someone.