The recent bus hijacking in Manila once again placed the Philippines under an unpleasant media spotlight this week, with the BBC and CNN rightfully decrying the incompetence of the local authorities. Eight tourists died at the end of the bus hijacking, mostly due to the Manila police’s self-admitted "inadequate capability, skills, equipment and planning.”
As a travel writer living in Manila, I’m of two minds on the matter. I grieve along with other Manila residents, as these were eight tourist deaths in our backyard that should never have happened. On the other hand… “Philippines disaster” seems to be the default setting for any news coverage of this part of the world.
It’s not entirely undeserved. Filipinos have long suffered under years of corrupt government and backward theocracy, with no end in sight. Official responses to major disasters vary from the barely viable to the outright incompetent, with this week’s police failure being very much the latter. (I had to check a few times if Frank Drebin had been inexplicably put in charge of the Manila SWAT team.)
Yet this reflects unfairly on the parts of the Philippines that are, in not so many words, awesome.
Andie isn’t “reading”, per se - she’s looking at the chock-full of baby pictures in a baby sling manual. (She’s very interested in baby pics.) But our nightly reading sessions have paid off, at least in the sense that she knows how to pick up and flip through a book without mangling it too much.
Part of me hopes this is history repeating itself - my sister Celeste and I were avid readers even at a very young age - at family get-togethers, we’d look for the books and read, instead of playing with our cousins.
My twitter profile reads: “my office is where I can plug in my laptop”. That’s not just a cute turn of phrase: I’m a professional travel blogger for About.com, so my life isn’t just affected by technology, it’s driven by it.
I’m lucky to be doing a job I love, just when technology has advanced sufficiently to fit my interests. I have a digital camera to take pictures with, a laptop to research and write with, and wherever I go, I have a good chance of hooking onto a WiFi connection to get work done.
And it’s not like I’m ahead of the technology curve - my gear is, on average, between 3-5 years old. But even with my semi-outdated gear, I get to do some stuff that would have been impossible just ten years ago:
I buy cheap airfare online, without ever having to visit a ticketing office.
I research and book hotels, tours, and roadmaps long before getting to a destination.
I keep my friends informed on my whereabouts, by posting Twitter updates (both text and photos) from my cellphone. (My Twitter updates automatically become updates on my Facebook page, too, killing two birds with one stone.)
And within hours of finishing a trip, I can post pictures and articles on my travel site, updating About.com’s knowledge base for the benefit of its 60-million-odd readers.
It’s not easy (spending weeks away from one’s family never is) but I would be lying if I said it wasn’t fun.
Believe it or not, the trip to Boracay was work. I’m in the middle of writing a review of Mandala Spa in Boracay, and will post it to my Southeast Asia Travel website this Tuesday. I thought I’d take the opportunity to post a few pictures I took of the place.
I’m writing this in the pre-boarding section of the original domestic airport terminal in Pasay, Metro Manila. Will be boarding SEAir flight headed to Boracay in about an hour. It’s not a vacation, it’s work - I’m on a press visit for a resort/spa on the island, and I’ll be scooping up more content for my Southeast Asia Travel website. It’s a living.
I’m writing this interlude because I’m trying to wean myself from the idea that my blog posts here have to have some bigger meaning. This explains the paucity of blog entries over the past year - as I’ve been buried in deadlines for my About.com site and other commitments, I’ve had no time to think - and because I’ve been so used to thinking hard about my blog entries before posting them, updating my blog has simply passed further and further away from my radar.
I’m not giving up editorializing on current events, philosophy, or the Internet. I’m just going to give a little extra attention to the “real life” part of this blog that has so far only been featured on my Twitter and Facebook pages.
I’m a work-from-home dad to an awesome little girl, and I’m lucky to be married to a wonderful lady. I think that deserves a little more space in this blog. I’m not swinging to another extreme, I’m just saying you’ll hear about my family a little more, a little more about the dog, stuff like that.
Concluding this blog entry now, the laptop is getting heavy and my crossed leg is losing circulation. Besides, I want to have some lunch before I board the flight. Next stop, BORACAY!
This is Marlene Aguilar’s world; we’re just living in it. Under its humdrum façade, the world is actually a seething cauldron of suspense, action, and DRAMA, hidden so well that only a genius-level mind like Marlene Aguilar’s can perceive it.
“We are genius[es], borderline insanity. My intelligence is way above most people. Does that make me insane?” Aguilar told radio dzMM’s news anchors Julius Babao and Tinton Bersola-Babao when asked to react to some listeners’ messages that she must be crazy.
Nooo, Marlene Aguilar is not insane… she just has a… unique grasp of reality. Which I wouldn’t mind so much if she didn’t try to get us to see the world her way.
I asked one of the police officers from Eastern Police District who spoke to me in confidence, “What would have happened if my son came from a poor family?” He replied, “You would have found your son’s body floating in Pasig River already.” “Kung pangkaraniwang tao lang ho ang anak ninyo lumulutang na ho sa Pasig River ang katawan niyan.”
The very real danger of being a foreigner in this country is not known until you are involved in an accident, or an incident; most especially if this involves a government official, and the country’s law may not apply.
(This just in from my astral self, who projected this message: “What would have happened if Marlene Aguilar came from a poor family? She would have been confined in Mandaluyong, or naging taong-grasa sa kalye.”)
I Swear I Didn’t Know He Was In the Basement: Hey, Marlene! Remember when you were calling on your son to surrender from… where was it again? Hawaii? Florida? Or the storeroom under your house? Read more…
As a travel writer living in Manila, I’m of two minds on the matter. I grieve along with other Manila residents, as these were eight tourist deaths in our backyard that should never have happened. On the other hand… “Philippines disaster” seems to be the default setting for any news coverage of this part of the world.
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