So many things are happening in the world these days. Journalists' adrenalin levels are at a peak again as they scamper to cover newsworthy occurences around the globe and in the country and beat deadlines. People I know are also having personal and familial upheavals. There are good things and there are bad things but all of them are disorienting.
And then this typhoon.
In Manila, the rain speeds things up while ironically slowing things down. On the road for example, people scurry around like roaches exposed to the light when it rains. PUV drivers get extra irritable, umbrella vendors hawk on a welcome opportunity for more sales. Offices are busier as they make calls to confirm, cancel or postpone meetings and other events. Students are abuzz asking each other whether classes are cancelled or not. That we are in a typhoon-prone area has not improved coping mechanisms and decresed stress about sudden inclement weather.
Yesterday, oblivious of an approaching typhoon, I was at the Rajah Sulayman Lumba Ranao Grand Mosque in Roxas Boulevard documenting internally displaced people (IDPs) in the informal settlement around it. This was for a Japanese visiting researcher who is doing a study on IDPs in the Philippines and wanted snapshots of their normal way of life. Even if it was raining dinosaurs when we got there at 7 a.m., we still did what we could especially because my schedule would not permit us going back anytime soon. I was supposed to go to Baler tomorrow for a 10-day field work with another visiting researcher, a Korean this time, for a study on ICT for farmers. The shoot itself in Roxas was okay but my rubber shoes were soaked and we had to leave by 9 a.m. because most of the people in the community went to the Senate PCSO hearing to voice their support to Margie Juico and PNoy. The rain did not permit us to take good photographs since the area was a tent-communuty and there was not enough shelter for us and our gear. Also, most of the people are holed up inside their houses and were not engaging in their usual activities.
To maximize the day, we headed to Quiapo to document life in an estero at P. Casal, another of the researcher's sites, thinking it might be better there since the area is roofed by the sheer crampedness of the place. One side of the river had Maranao settlers and the other Maguindanaons. We went to the latter. Although I had been to many depressed areas before, it had been my first time to enter an estero community. It's a mystery how hundreds of families lived in lightless two-storey dwellings which when constructed together formed a tunnel running through the stretch of the Pasig River towards the Quiapo Grand Mosque. The uninitiated will find it really unbelievable that so many people inhabit an area accessed only by going down a rickety wooden makeshift ladder at the side of the bridge. The only thing that gives the hidden community away are the parked pedicabs outside.
Anyway, I listened to many stories of the residents and was particularly interested in their comparison of life in Mindanao and life in Manila. Very notable is the fact that even if there are warring tribes in the city, Rido does not follow them here because among them, it is assumed that since they migrated to Manila, they are not interested in conflict and perpetuating it and that all of them despite tribal differences came here to have a peaceful and productive life.
Also interesting is their struggle for land tenure and on-site development via the community mortgage program (CMP). I discovered that these particular Muslim communities were generally pleased with the president. I deduce that among other things, it is because the current administration is very open to dialogue with them about their land tenure issue especially because they are partnered with NGOs and community organizers that are politically aligned with influential cabinet members. I think that this is the best time, more than any, to multiply their efforts at championing their cause.
I also found out that the notion that informal settlers along esteros are dirt-poor is not true. Many of the houses under the bridge had flatscreen HDTVs. Some had laptops and computers and access the internet through wifi. They can and are willing to pay for housing amortization but they want to stay in the area and oppose off-city relocation sites because their employment and businesses are in Manila.
Despite the increased activity and fatigue, this typhoon has in fact slowed things down for me by getting my schedule out of whack. I'd now like to return to the two sites to take more photos in better weather but I won't be able to do that soon because my Baler field work is moved to next week. Despite these turn of events and my contracting a fever, I'm excited about making good photographs in these sites in August.
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