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They may not have had the chance to meet him personally, but the dancing inmates of Cebu were really shocked and saddened by the death of pop icon Michael Jackson. The dancing inmates gain international recognition because of their performance of Jackson’s hit song “Thriller.”

For the past two years, Jackson’s “Thriller” has been performed by the inmates almost every month, as many curious audiences have been visiting the prison up the hills in Metro Cebu’s Opra city. Their four-minute video clip continues to generate hits in YouTube, and has reached more than 23 million after it was posted last 2007.

They were in fact performing the said dance routine on Thursday afternoon at the Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center (CPDRC) for the delegates of the Philippine International Tourism Fair (PITF), just a few hours before Jackson died.

With the death of the legendary music icon, the inmates performed four of his songs in a row on Saturday to pay their final tribute to their idol.

1,581 inmates, all clad in the orange jail uniform, with sentences ranging from 1 to 10 years, over murder, rape and drug cases filed one by one into the fenced exercise yard of the CPDRC where officials had hang a picture of the star.

The tribute started with a prayer for the eternal repose of Jackson’s soul, after which the inmates performed to songs Ben, I’ll Be There, We Are The World and the final number was Thriller. The whole presentation which was witnessed by around 500 visitors and an army of local and international journalists started shortly after 4 PM and lasted for an hour.

Byron Garcia, security consultant of the CPDRC said the said to the King of Pop last Saturday, will also be uploaded on YouTube soon for the rest of the world to see.