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After heading back to Manila from Cavite, we visited my wife’s aunt in Cubao. Cubao is my old stomping grounds. We lived in Project 4, and Cubao was where my family would go to the movies, eat out and shop. I always swore I would still remember the roads there even after a 22-year absence. Sure enough, I was able to navigate my way back to where we used to live, even though P. Tuazon is now dotted with new buildings. Our old street looks narrower and our old house looks awfully small now. The makopa tree is gone - the whole garden area has been paved with cement. I have no pictures to post here because I stupidly had forgotten to bring my camera’s battery which was sitting in its charger back at home base.

Cubao is pretty much the same. Ali Mall is still standing and the original SM is still there. I was surprised to see Fiesta Carnival still intact. A new mall called Gateway juts out of the space right next to the big National Bookstore and connects Araneta Coliseum to Farmers Market, which has been vastly improved. A new MRT station is accessible from inside.

Speaking of malls, as we headed to Bataan the next day and traversed the entire Metro Manila from South Super Highway, through EDSA and then to North Super Highway, I was amused to see that there are shopping malls every few kilometers along this route. Appropriately, the skyline along EDSA is garnished with billboards pushing the latest fashions, beauty products and mobile pre-paid cards. They’re very twenty-something targeted.

Paved roads in Manila are much improved. Not only are there more of them, but there are less potholes to encounter. Philippine driving, however, is quite a different matter. It shocks me in two ways: one, everyone git-gits each other; two, somehow nobody gets mad at each other for this practice. It’s become the de-facto way of establishing one’s right of way. Amazing. This means a relatively quiet drive (save for my whimpering) with no one blowing their horn at one another. Commuting in Manila was a much noisier affair twenty-some years ago. I’m also glad to find out that some sort of Clean Air Act has been passed in Manila.

Next: Bataan

I give props to Ronald Reagan (1911-2004) for ending the Cold War but I’d like to think the Filipino people helped inspire the world to fight oppressive regimes in the 1980s. The People Power Revolution that followed Ninoy Aquino’s assassination in 1983 catapulted his widow, Cory, to run, and eventually win, against the dictator Ferdinand Marcos during snap elections held in 1986. It was this revolt that gave hope, I believe, to oppressed people worldwide. I remember in 1987 watching South Korean protesters on TV holding up the “L” sign, the initial of Cory Aquino’s LABAN party, as they appropriated the symbol for themselves in their own fight against unfair elections. I see the image of the lone guy standing defiantly against a tank in 1989’s Tiananmen Square protest mirrored in the image from 1986 of nuns and ordinary citizens praying in front of tanks during a rally in Manila. Even as Reagan set the stage in his resolve to rid the world of communism in the 1980s, the People Power movement demonstrated to the world how non-violent peaceful resistance is done.

Update: found this interesting article on the legacy of People Power.