"Hinahanap-hanap kita Manila, Ang ingay mong kay sarap sa tenga, Mga jeepney mong nagliliparan, Mga babae mong naggagandahan" (I miss you, Manila, Your noise that's good to the ear, Your fast-driving jeepneys, Your beautiful girls) So goes the song of "Hotdog", the band that started the "Manila Sound"... remember their other songs "Pers Lab" and "Ikaw ang Miss Universe ng Buhay Ko"?
What are you really missing in the Philippines? Is it the sound? the sights and the scenes? The stories - whether newsworthy or plain gossips? The succulent food? Our People - the super resilient Pinoys? who have weathered 3 or 4 EDSA revolutions and several coup attempts? (I was there on the streets of the 1st and 2nd EDSA's but not on the last ones.) I guessed, with that, you have already a close figure of my age in your mind. But going back to my question, when do I start missing Philippines when I live in the Philippines? I do, but I travel a lot, mostly around Asia. And when I stay in an Asian city for more than 2 weeks, that's when I start missing Philippines. What more for those many of our Pinoys staying out of the country for years, like my brother who has been working in Japan for more than 10 years now..
I start missing Philippines when I have to get bus cards or train cards when I go out to go to shopping malls in Singapore or to some shops in Hong Kong, where jeepneys and metro manila buses are nowhere in sight. I start missing Philippines, when I hear Chinese music, instead of Basil Valdez or Regine Velasquez on the radio. I start missing Philippines when I can't buy green or raw sampaloc (tamarind) in their markets so I can cook my favorite sinigang. I start missing Philippines when I can't knock on my neighbor to ask for a pinch of salt because I forgot to buy some the other day. Ahhh, so many things that will make you miss Philippines so much when you are living abroad even if for just a month or two.
So, what to do when I have a planned trip.. I bring some of the things that I will miss. Some sinigang broth, music CD's of my favorite Pinoy artists, a kilo of calamansi, 2 kilos of Philippine-made hotdog (I need to share some), chocnut, raw papaya for tinola, bagoong, instant noodles, instant pancit canton... I could go on and on. . And ten kilos of my baggage are these stuff. But food is not the only thing I miss... Lots and lots more of other things.
Hey, I created this blog just for that. Every now and then, I will be posting things that we start missing in the Philippines. We will have stories, photos, music, even videos.. Promise, I will bring some of these things here closer to you...
Manila Pic 1 Trial Only
Tuesday, February 5, 2008
Something Good is Happening in Marikina
Wednesday night (January 30, 2008), I came home from my sister's birthday get-together dinner in SM Mall of Asia (MOA). Although it was my second time to go to MOA, I couldn't help myself but compare it with some malls in Singapore, in fact, it felt like I was in Singapore. And again that wishful thinking, when will Metro Manila become like Singapore? At home, after an hour's drive, I relaxed a bit on our sofa and watched some of the new teleseryes on TV. Three new teleseryes started this week in ABS-CBN Channel 2: Kung Fu Kids, Palos, and Lobo. After these teleseryes, came the news program, and then one of my favorite news-magazine programs, The Probe. Something caught my attention in one of its segments - and it was some good thing happening in Marikina.
Have you heard anything about Marikina lately? We all know that it's called the shoe capital or the shoe city of the Philippines. But nowadays it's more than that. It's being tagged now as the Singapore of Metro Manila. The city is totally clean, yes Maria, you don't see garbage around. There are no sidewalk vendors so the sidewalks are clear and wide for the sidewalkers to sidewalk by (I mean pedestrians to walk on the sidewalks.) The markets there are sanitary and are not smelly. You don't see half-naked men roaming on the road nor do you see them having a drinking spree along the streets as these are ban in Marikina. And the once over-polluted Marikina River is now being revived, cleaned and now a romantic spot in Marikina Park. So many scenes in movies and TV programs have been shot there. The residents there have discipline; they follow their city's laws and regulations and they obey traffic rules. It's fantastic; it's unbelievable for a city like that to exist in Metro Manila. If you're planning to go back home, then you should visit Marikina. Besides the Marikina Park, where it's big enough for you to spend the whole day roaming around, they have a new swimming resort, a butterfly park, and a shoe museum where you can find the world-record biggest shoe in the world. I'm not into politics so much, but allow me to mention the person who started it all in Marikina who is their former Mayor and now the Head of MMDA (Metropolitan Manila Development Authority) Chairman Bayani Fernando. But at present, the leadership in Marikina is passed on to his wife, Ma. Lourdes Fernando, now the mayor of Marikina.
But what really got my attention about Marikina in the Probe program of Ms. Cheche Lazaro? It's the recycling garbage system that they have implemented among the public school students and their parents in their locality. Oh, what a big deal, it's just garbage! Yes it is, and it involves about thousands of students and their parents in Marikina and the total income generated from this effort is translated into millions of pesos. How's that? The students in public schools are instructed to tell their parents at home to segregate their garbage - that is to separate the paper, the glass bottle containers and the plastic. The students bring these to the school where it will be weighed and recorded accordingly in each student's passbook. They earn points for bringing the recyclable materials; the more they bring, the more they gain points. One point is equivalent to a peso. If a student brings a kilo of used paper, and if a kilo of used paper is five pesos, then he gets five points. The student is paid fair and square. The accumulated points gained by the student can be exchanged for some grocery items in the school, like cooking oil, biscuits, instant noodles, spaghetti, or maybe laundry soap - what's good about this is they don't exchange this for cash as the students or the parents might be tempted to use the money in some other way if they get the cash. Because of this program, the students and the parents are encouraged to recycle their garbage. Likewise, the students learn to save or be a part of a small livelihood. The big picture in this is the city has reduced its garbage disposal by over 30%. The city government also saves in paying for the garbage trucks that collects the residents' garbage as there is less garbage to get. It also creates jobs as the business of "junk shops" (I think it would be better to call them "recycling shops") thrive on this so they expand and hire additional workers. Most of all, we save the environment from so much garbage disposable.
As I was watching the segment in The Probe program, I was sighing "that's very very good..." Only, if all the cities in Metro Manila or even all the cities in the Philippines will copy that.
That something good in Marikina is just a drop of water in a bucket but I'm really hoping it will create ripples everywhere.
To know more about Marikina’s vision as a model city, click on this link http://city.marikina.gov.ph/
Have you heard anything about Marikina lately? We all know that it's called the shoe capital or the shoe city of the Philippines. But nowadays it's more than that. It's being tagged now as the Singapore of Metro Manila. The city is totally clean, yes Maria, you don't see garbage around. There are no sidewalk vendors so the sidewalks are clear and wide for the sidewalkers to sidewalk by (I mean pedestrians to walk on the sidewalks.) The markets there are sanitary and are not smelly. You don't see half-naked men roaming on the road nor do you see them having a drinking spree along the streets as these are ban in Marikina. And the once over-polluted Marikina River is now being revived, cleaned and now a romantic spot in Marikina Park. So many scenes in movies and TV programs have been shot there. The residents there have discipline; they follow their city's laws and regulations and they obey traffic rules. It's fantastic; it's unbelievable for a city like that to exist in Metro Manila. If you're planning to go back home, then you should visit Marikina. Besides the Marikina Park, where it's big enough for you to spend the whole day roaming around, they have a new swimming resort, a butterfly park, and a shoe museum where you can find the world-record biggest shoe in the world. I'm not into politics so much, but allow me to mention the person who started it all in Marikina who is their former Mayor and now the Head of MMDA (Metropolitan Manila Development Authority) Chairman Bayani Fernando. But at present, the leadership in Marikina is passed on to his wife, Ma. Lourdes Fernando, now the mayor of Marikina.
But what really got my attention about Marikina in the Probe program of Ms. Cheche Lazaro? It's the recycling garbage system that they have implemented among the public school students and their parents in their locality. Oh, what a big deal, it's just garbage! Yes it is, and it involves about thousands of students and their parents in Marikina and the total income generated from this effort is translated into millions of pesos. How's that? The students in public schools are instructed to tell their parents at home to segregate their garbage - that is to separate the paper, the glass bottle containers and the plastic. The students bring these to the school where it will be weighed and recorded accordingly in each student's passbook. They earn points for bringing the recyclable materials; the more they bring, the more they gain points. One point is equivalent to a peso. If a student brings a kilo of used paper, and if a kilo of used paper is five pesos, then he gets five points. The student is paid fair and square. The accumulated points gained by the student can be exchanged for some grocery items in the school, like cooking oil, biscuits, instant noodles, spaghetti, or maybe laundry soap - what's good about this is they don't exchange this for cash as the students or the parents might be tempted to use the money in some other way if they get the cash. Because of this program, the students and the parents are encouraged to recycle their garbage. Likewise, the students learn to save or be a part of a small livelihood. The big picture in this is the city has reduced its garbage disposal by over 30%. The city government also saves in paying for the garbage trucks that collects the residents' garbage as there is less garbage to get. It also creates jobs as the business of "junk shops" (I think it would be better to call them "recycling shops") thrive on this so they expand and hire additional workers. Most of all, we save the environment from so much garbage disposable.
As I was watching the segment in The Probe program, I was sighing "that's very very good..." Only, if all the cities in Metro Manila or even all the cities in the Philippines will copy that.
That something good in Marikina is just a drop of water in a bucket but I'm really hoping it will create ripples everywhere.
To know more about Marikina’s vision as a model city, click on this link http://city.marikina.gov.ph/
Missing Those Philippine Child Games
One thing that a Pinoy really misses when he is overseas are the games we usually play on the streets of Metro Manila or even in towns in the provinces. Remember those days, just right after school, we go out and play with friends in the neighbors. And we have our favorite street games. Mine is Taguan (hide and seek), what’s yours? Before, our street games are so physical, which was good, because besides enjoying the game, we are unconsciously doing physical exercise. That’s why we are so tough and we don’t get sick easily as compared to children nowadays as their games are very electronic like computer games or hand-held electronic games.So, do you recall playing these games?
- Piko – where we try to outnumber the “bahay” (box spots) of our opponents.
- Tumbang Preso (Hit the Can) – how many times have you become “bagoong” (or the prolonged “it”) in this game?
- Agawang Base – where we catch the other’s teammates to become our captives.
- Patintero – the maze-like game bounded by lines guarded by the opponents.
- Holen or Jolens – tossing round marbles out of a small circled-area on the ground.
- Teks (small comics or cartoons cards) – we buy these cards and play with them and we either lose or win all our cards to our opponents.
- Goma or Rubber Bands – those colorful rubber bands that we braid, the longer the better.
- Chinese Garter – a girl’s game where they jump over an elastic garter, although this game is rather very Filipino and did not originate from China.
- Syato – the game with two sticks where the loser has to run and shout the word “Syato”; a good vocal exercise.
- Luksong Tinik (Jump over the thorns) – how we jump as high as we could.
Other games : Jackstone, Langit Lupa (Heaven & Earth), Touch The Color, Bahay-Bahayan (Playing House), Sipa (Kick) and some others.
But like the games children play today, we sometimes get addicted to playing. My brothers were like that. They sometimes get hooked with playing resulting into lower grades in their school cards. How my father boiled my brother’s boxful of teks cards and made him drink the broth, yuck! Not only that, he buried his jolens on the ground somewhere and burned his braid of rubber bands.
I wonder what kind of games will the children be playing in the future? Why don’t we try teaching our children our old games? I’m sure they will enjoy them as much as we enjoyed them some years ago.
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