One day, isang araw, ako'y nag-trolley, baw.

Last tuesday, Manay and I accompanied applicants of the Landas ng Pag-Asa scholarship from Payatas to take their entrance exam at ERDA Tech in Pandacan, Manila. In order to save travel time, all ten of us used the "metro walk", a semi-secret passage through the PNR tracks that cuts accross Teresa St. in Sta. Mesa and reaches Pandacan. It was my first time to ride the trolley. I am amazed at how inventive Filipinos can get. Without this route, we would have to go to Quiapo first and then ride a bus to Pandacan, which will take around two hours as opposed to an hour taking the LRT, a jeep and the trolley.

The conditions of the people were so depressing. Shanties were so close to each other. It seems that the residents were mostly tambays, killing time watching trolleys pass by. There were a lot of kids playing around and even more adults just talking to each other or sharing gin bulag or tanduay. I was trying to capture some of this through my point and shoot but a companion said, "Ate, itago mo yan. Ang sama ng tingin sayo." All I got then were these shots and every one of them were "hail marys".

It's very disturbing to witness conditions like these, much less to live like this. It's ironic that people here live right smack at the physical center of the metro but live also at its social margins.