A Rainy Summer Night in Cubao

The day began like a usual summer's day: hot and humid, with a bright sun on the sky. In late afternoon, however, the clouds began to gather until it became very dark. The sun hid it's brightness behind the thick clouds. The sky threathened to rain any minute.

I was walking along Aurora Boulevard towards Farmer's Plaza when the rain started to pour. It was a heavy downpour. Men and women in the streets began running to take shelter in the bangketas, flattening themselves into the walls, their shoulders touching one another. I ran to a shelter to keep my camera from getting soaked. But it seemed that the rain would not stop anytime soon, and I was already getting hungry.

A kindly lady offered me her umbrella, and I thought that she was very kind. Until she told me that her umbrella was for rent. For 5 pesos, she will let me cross the street towards Farmer's, and she will accompany me to make sure I don't ran away with her umbrella. I was amused how some circumstances can produce some very enterprising people. I agreed, and we walked side by side towards Farmer's, trying to make the umbrella fit for the two of us. My shoes and socks were soaked, but it did not matter as what I was trying to protect was my camera inside my sling bag.

Ater a few moments, we arrived in Farmer's and I paid the lady and thanked her for her help. Meantime, she began to seek new recruits, shouting "Payong!, Payong! Limang Piso lang pagtawid o" (Umbrella!, Umbrella, 5 pesos for crossing the street!). The trapped pedestrians were startled, surprised with this new kind of business. Yet the lady managed to get a new customer, a tall old man, and they began to cross towards the other side, their bodies touching, like old sweethearts caught in a mighty tailwind of a romantic storm.

How My Brand New Car is Rammed by a Revo

I am not a brusque driver, and in my almost ten years of driving, I have never been involved in any road mishaps or accidents. Even when late for work, I would leisurely drive at 40-50 kilometer per hour speed, sometimes only achieving 70km/hour when badly in a hurry. This way, I don't feel tired driving, and I get to save gas.

This morning, however, I was involved in a road mishap. I was driving along Maria Clara street in Quezon City with a speed of 20km. I was crossing an intersection, and as my habit, slowed down to 10km and looked sideways to look for crossing vehicles. There was no car on my left, but on my right was a Toyota Revo. The Revo was still some 15 meters away, however, and so I felt there is no danger of collision. I was already in the middle of the intersection, and I assumed that the Revo would stop. Unless he is stupid, the Revo driver would step on the break, and not ram his car into mine.

But I was mistaken. Because the Revo driver was stupid, (or was he blind) and he did not stop, and he rammed his bullbar into my door. I immediately knew this was trouble. My car, which is barely only a year old, was destroyed on the right side. I stayed calm, however, which is essentially the thing to do in this situation. I was not hurt and that's the most important thing. I couldn't see the Revo driver's face because of his tinted windshield. I stopped my car and went outside to investigate. Meantime, all the vehicles in the area started blowing their horns, not realizing that two cars were already in a mishap in the middle of an interesection.

The driver, it turned out, was neither stupid nor blind. He was actually a senior citizen in his early 60s. His poor vision and reflexes may have prevented him from calculating correctly the distance between his car and mine. He apologized for his fault. But I couldn't get angry to an aged man. I accepted his apology but told him he must pay for the damages. As it happened, all the damages were in my car. The Revo, protected with bulky bullbars, did not even have a dent!


My brand new car, rammed by a Revo with a strong bullbar.

In a short while, the traffic investigator appeared on the scene to arrange the traffic situation, and investigate the accident. After taking some sketches and photographing the scene of accident, the investigator told us that we should now remove our cars from the road so as not to disturb the traffic situation. I thought that this investigator was very kind, until he went to charge us 500 pesos for the three photographs he took of the scene. I was also a photographer, and I don't charge that much. It's unbelievable how some people would take advantage of some people's misfortunes to earn some money. Nevertheless, to make the story short, the old man paid him the 500, as I will not pay for anything in this accident which is not of my doing.

The clever investigator told us to go to the Traffic Bureau in Balintawak to file a formal deposition. Thus, the accident put into disarray all my plans for the day, as I could no longer use the car. The investigator concluded that the accident was indeed the fault of the Revo, and the old man did not raise protest. He knew it was his fault. It was agreed that the old man's insurance will shoulder all the necessary cost and replacements. Technically, I could still claim for some more damages but I felt pity for the old man. I am younger, so I gave him my understanding. I know that ranting was already pointless since he already accepted his fault. Still, the thought of not having the convenience of a car depressed me. At the most, my car will be in the Toyota service station for two weeks., and I will have a hard time doing my business without it. Yet, accidents happen, and the only thoughts comforting me was that nobody was hurt in this accident.

****
After delivering my car in Toyota Service Center for replacements of the door and fender, I rode a jeepney to Quiapo to attend the Friday Mass, which was my custom every friday. Afterwards, I went to the FX terminal to head back to Cubao. The line of waiting passengers was very long. I had a bag of groceries in my hands, and it was raining. What was worse, I forgot my umbrella in the church. I shielded my bare head with a piece of paper. It was soaked in a few minutes. Finally, after almost half an hour waiting, the FX taxi arrived. After one and a half hour of traffic, I was back in Cubao.

Tomorrow and the next few weeks, I will be lining for hours in these FX terminals. I really don't mind riding in FX taxis. But in my kind of buy and sell business, a car is very necessary. Well, sometimes people have to suffer even when its not their fault. It happens. It really does.

The Father

This is Efren, the father of the family who sleeps near the Cubao ATM Machine. He works all day and night trying to find scraps of cartons or empty cups and mineral bottles which he calls "kalakal". After a whole night scavenging, he would have gathered some 2-3 sacks of "kalakal" which he would later sell to the junk shop.
The competition is stiff, he says. Other scavengers are also on the look-out for any trash that would be unloaded on the garbage stations of Cubao. On the average, he earns some 120 pesos for a whole day and night of scavenging. On the morning, he would give to his wife his earnings. The wife would then scrape for left-over foods in the thrash cans of Jolibee and McDo to find any food that can be washed and eaten by her brood. If the gathered food is not enough, she would line up in the NFA rice selling station in the Cubao Barangay Hall.
Meantime, her children wander about in the area, waiting for food to come, even begging food from passersby. It's surprising not one of them get lost in the jungle city of Cubao.

A Sleeping Family Near a Cubao ATM machine

(click image enlarge)

While having one of my usual nocturnal walks in Cubao, I noticed this poor family sleeping in their makeshift home near a BPI ATM Machine. Despite their obvious poverty, the mother and her children sleep well. The father, I later learned, was away digging for some empty mineral water bottles in the trash cans in Aurora Boulevard. April 28, 2008 11pm.

The New Ali Mall Cubao

Cubao tycoon Jorge Araneta finally decides to renovate old Ali Mall, one of the oldest shopping malls in the country. Ali Mall , which was built in 1976 and named in honor of the great boxing champion Muhammad Ali, has been one of the iconic hang-outs in Cubao, long before there was Farmer's or Rustan's, or the SM Malls. Ali Mall was a big part of my childhood, and I spent some very sweet memories there.

During High School, my classmates and I would sneak from our school to hang-out in the skating rink and eat Coney Island Ice Cream. My classmates would then "tambay" in the foodcourt to look out for free taste of foods, while I head to National Bookstore to read my favorite paperbacks.

Back then, with very little money in my pocket, I couldn't possibly buy the books I wanted. Instead I read in the bookstore itself, making it into a library, reading in installments, despite the sign in the shelf that reads "No Private Reading Please".

When I finally saved some money from my allowances, I try to buy all the books that I can afford, and so was able to build a personal library, even at a very young age. There was no Booksale then, and so I was always forced to buy new books at brand new prices. Looking back, I realized how naive my taste for books were at that time.

Now Ali Mall is changing. Although I miss its old dilapidated look, I welcome the new and better changes as part of Araneta Cubao's complete make-over. Araneta Cubao itself is rapidly changing. There will be more buildings to rise as the projected Manhattan Condominiums take more of Araneta Cubao's landscape. In the next few years, most old buildings in Cubao (like Rustan's and the Bus Terminal) will be leveled to the ground to give way to more modernized buildings.

Well, that's just how things go. We can't always live in the past :)

Earth Day

Yesterday was Earth Day. From now on, I would prefer that everyday should be Earth Day.

I am a lover of Earth. From outer space, Earth looks a lovely planet, the oceans are landforms are visible. It's a beautiful, beautiful planet. It's the only one we have. Even if they find that Mars or Saturn can be liveable, I would prefer living in Earth.

But now, things are becoming ugly. We fill our atmosphere with smoke and gas. The air we breath, once invisible, is now visible. It's so dirty you can now be able to see it.

You see, solution for Climate Change does not lie on some genius scientists working in the laboratory, finding the solutions for it. The solution lies within each of us living on Earth. The solution for Climate Change is every person's responsibility. We now know the symptoms. We must work on the cure.

When there is a pain in your body, it tells you something about your body. Pain is an indication that there is something wrong. Yet some people tend to ignore them. It will go away, they think. But eventually they die of heart attack, of cancer, of infection.... why? because they didn't listen to what their body is telling them.

The Earth as we know it is changing. We have burned more fuels in the last 80 years than the earth has burned in the last 100 million years! Yet, millions of tons of fuels are still being burned everyday.

A scientific fact: A live frog in a pan filled with water over a heated stove, will eventually boil itself to death. It will not even struggle to get out of it.

We, humankind, are supposedly the most intelligent of all life forms on the Earth. Yet, it's obvious now that our very intelligence is only at par with the frogs. We are burning ourselves to death. And we are not doing anything about it. At least not enough. Like Dr. Frankenstein, we have created a monster. And we can no longer control it.

A parable:

In the beginning there was only Man and animals. But Man was so lonely, and so the animals around him became worried. The bear said to the man: "Why are you so lonely?" , Man replied: "Because I'm not as strong as you". The bear said: "I'll give you then my strength".

But Man was still lonely, and the eagle said:"Why are you so lonely?. Man replied: "Because I'm not as fast as you are". The eagle said: "Well then, i'll give you my agility and speed!"

But as usual, the Man was still lonely. And the owl asked him: "What's wrong my friend?". Man said "I'm lonely becuase I didn't have your intelligence", and the Owl said: "Don't be so sad then, you can have my intelligence"

And the man walked away still not feeling satisfied with all the gifts he had from the animals. The Earth said to the animals: "Look, I'm afraid now. We have given everything we had for Man, but still he's not satisfied. The future will come that we have given him everything, and Man will still not be satisfied".

And that future is now.

Leaving Marinduque

I just spent the entire Holy Week in Marinduque. For sure it was an exhilirating adventure and I have some of the sweetest memories of the province. The whole experience was utterly engaging and can hardly be forgotten. I'm thankful to the Marinduquenos for giving me a temporary home while away from my true home.

I could have gone there with a companion, but I decided to go alone. I am by no means a loner, and I have several friends who would have gladly come with me. But I wish to be alone on this kind of trips. Nothing to worry except myself. I could go in and out of my hotel anytime. I could go to one place or another on impulse. Wade into the fields, hike into the hills, walk down the spreading sands of the fine beach. And it was wonderful. Sometimes, to be really alone with yourself can be one of the happiest moments in one's life.

Leaving the island of Marinduque after the week-long joyful festivities is quite saddening. On the Monday after the Festival, the flags and banderitas were lowered down, the welcome signs were being pulled down, tourists begin to leave, and the island becomes once more a place of simplicity, complacency, and beauty. I'm sure every tourist who visited the island leave with a kind of sadness in their hearts.

Meantime, here's a short video of the Port of Balanacan as we leave the island of Marinduque to head back to Luzon. I know that I will come back to Marinduque sometime in the future. And if you haven't gone there yet, schedule your first visit there on the next Holy Week. The good people of Marinduque will warmly welcome you, as I had been.