Manila Case

When you're inhaling not just an air, welcome to Manila. It's a privilege for a student who came from the province of Cavite to even just sniff the distinct type of air in this city. Inhibiting the sense of smelling from its polluted air, there are other distinct sceneries in this capital that we inhibit our other senses to use particularly the sense of seeing.

I boarded the bus at around 6AM. I always allotted a two-hour in travelling to avoid being late. While the conductor was giving ticket to the passengers, the driver announced in his microphone that they will no longer enter Taft Avenue because of the bus ban. All the passengers started a commotion, giving monologue side comments about how stupid this scheme was. The word stupid and other curse words in Filipino language in the bus don't need hashtags to trend in a social networking site as it is the common word I heard that came out in every passenger's mouth. I, too, wanted to curse Erap, Isko or Tolentino that time but it won't help so I texted my friends who are studying also in the university belt on how they got there. Others didn't reply, only one, her name is Jelly - my savior that time. She instructed me that the bus can still enter Taft Ave. but up to Remedios St. only and they will board off its passengers there and I'll just have to ride a jeep to reach UP. Morbidly, the bus didn't enter Taft and it went along Roxas Blvd. Completely clueless and helpless that time, I board off in Quirino Ave.-Roxas Blvd. near Ospital ng Maynila and set my on-foot adventure like Dora the Explorer without the map to help me how to get to my school with ease.

It is the first time since I laid my foot on different pavement in Manila; neither Pedro Gil nor Padre Faura as they were the only streets I laid my foot on everyday. I'm not really sure of what I'm going to do. I was the only one who got off the bus. I was afraid of making a new map and I felt hesitant to ask some strange people so I follow the route that the bus is taking everyday before the ban. I started brisk walking, eyes on every direction, hauling my bag in front of me, and recited a prayer in my mind that my mother told me to recite whenever I feel in danger. Passing the Ospital ng Maynila; there are sidecars that I'm really sure will ask for an exorbitant fare even you are a student, stalls and stands selling cigarettes, assorted snacks especially the Filipino all-time favorite fried garlic peanuts beside the Children's park and Manila Zoo. But what got my attention is I didn't only see one nor two nor three but many ragged-clothed person lying on the sidewalks especially on the border of every podium of the tree as if it was their own house without a roof, a wall or a foundation. My eyes caught the attention of one pregnant woman who also have three kids sleeping with her and a mentally ill person who just got up from his carton bed and started walking in the same direction towards me. I accelerated my brisk walking until I had passed the insane person and cross to another street.

Whenever I see this kind of person, I can't felt any sympathy or callousness - there's no right term, I guess, for someone who always feels on the middle. I also see this kind of persons back in my hometown but not that many in one place. I can't blame them for maybe they have tried everything to just earn a living but failed. Even the government is not really to be all to blame also because they are too high from their respective positions that it'll take stairs, ladders and elevators just to reach them. We didn't do anything bad for them nor did we do anything good. We didn't use our capabilities to provide them these stairs, ladders and elevators they