bigboyinthecity: June 2011

Last January 2, since we weren't doing anything except eat all the leftovers from the holidays (and boy, they don't look like leftovers - it could still feed you for the next week), we decided to have a mini roadtrip in the metro. It was a wise decision because there wasn't much traffic - everyone was home or visiting others, eating leftovers from the holidays.

We decided to go to Manila, and find out how much it has changed since we were kids. We used to spend our summer vacation either in Pampanga, my mom's province (it's actually Tarlac, but her sister lives in Angeles, and it was a shorter commute back then, so we go there), or to Sta. Cruz, Manila, my dad's hometown.

Now Pampanga and Manila are worlds apart - Angeles then, was at once, bucolic and worldly, with the GI's all around and the fresh air smelling of chicken poop and PX goods, of friendly strangers, of everyone claiming to be related to each other - it was a warm feeling. Manila, on the other hand, was a bustling, chaotic mix of noises, urban dirt, and exciting unfriendly places and faces - everyone was anonymous, yet, in that old sector, my cousins and I know everyone and know who to hang out with.

In Manila, we would often take jeepney rides or just plain walk around in the vicinity of Sta. Cruz. It's quite a fantastic thing to do, specially when we were just 10 or 11 years old then. Everything was big, and everything was a wonder. It was actually quite dangerous then, and probably much more now. It was the martial law years then and it was the time when Manila was undergoing a change for the worse - buildings were beginning to deteriorate and people were becoming meaner. But those were wonderful years then, and I wouldn't trade it for anything else.

Enter now, and I see a quiet Manila (because it was a sunday), and I see some of the old buildings still there, but completely defeated, wearied by time and neglect. But it sure still shows us the glory of what was Manila then. I wish that the Manila government would be much more focused on saving our heritage sites there and also other sites that are worth saving, buildings that give Manila its distinct character and its true place in the history of the world - a great City that truly has a heart that is still alive and kicking after all these years.