YOU CAN'T TAKE MANILA SERIOUSLY!

I had an epiphany this morning that you can't take Manila seriously. Let me expand this statement. I was born and grew up in Cebu and didn't move to Manila until I was around 13 for high school and college. Even though I had my own pretensions, because my family in Cebu had prestige, had political connections, blah-blah-blah, I was slightly intimidated by Manila. For one thing the language, Tagalog, was something quite different from my first tongue, Cebuano. Even though English-only is debatable, I was relieved that the St. Theresa's nuns obliged us all to speak in English. At least my broken Tagalog didn't put me at a disadvantage. Another thing, and maybe this had to do with the girls' convent schools that I attended (St. Theresa's College, San Marcelino and Maryknoll College, Quezon City) - I did note the social structure (or stratification?), not only in school, but also in Manila society. Even though we backbited them, we (Theresians as a whole) looked with some envy at the girls who attended Assumption College because there were a lot of society girls among them - models, daughters of so-and-so. In fact the schools I attended also had name-people, but the Belgian and Filipina nuns at STC and the American nuns at Maryknoll College emphasized academics, so these daughters of so-and-so were only so important if they excelled in school. And because they had imbibed the nuns' values, they didn't end up in society pages as often as the other college girls did.

But it was there, I could feel it, for the 8 years I went to school in Manila - who was wealthier, who was prettier, who had more dates, who ended up in the society pages, etc. etc. - a constant social climbing. We paid attention to that, not to who was in the Dean's List.

And besides all that, the Tagalogs are generally more gruff, more rigid than the easy-going friendly Cebuanos.

Now, years later, I'm seeing Manila and Tagalogs in another way. The society columns still talk about the same families, and more noveau riche. Forbes Park and exclusive subdivisions and communities boast of huge houses or apartments. And people operate as if on different social strata, never meeting if so desired.

Well, now I look at all this and find the social stratification and pretensions interesting at best and pathetic at worst.

But really the way to look at Manila is with the eyes of a comedian. For instance, yesterday I witnessed this vignette: Picture a busy upscale department store in Makati - there's a Korean man, maybe in his early 40s, and a Filipina perhaps in her late 20s. They are in the lingerie section, staring at brassiers. There are racks and racks of them - to those who don't know, the Philippines exports lingeries - so this guy points out a padded blue brassier to the woman. The woman handles it, turns it over. It is thickly padded and the color is a vivid sky blue. She protests, "It is too big." The guy insists on it anyway, finally she disappears into a fitting room with the bra.

When I was younger, I might have turned away more quickly, indignant that here is this prostitute/call girl with some foreign man, and how disgusting the whole thing was etc. etc. That was the young Cecilia, trained forever by nuns, and highly judgemental - Sister Cecilia.

Well, yesterday, the older Cecilia lingered near the two to be able to listen and find out what was going on - yes, eavesdropped. And then, when I had figured it out, I had to hold myself back from laughing because the following thought flitted through: Oh my, it's like he owns a car and is buying accessories for it.

So, anyway, I thought about that some more and realized that there's a comic style to Manila. The people generally want to be important; each and everyone you meet will connect himself or herself with some politician - "So and so is my uncle." So many of them own cars, so much so that there is color-coding driving restriction. And at least here in Makati, there is such a Western slant, I see women wearing boots, and coats - yes, in this heat!

But there is the other childlike side, the crowds in church every evening at the end of a work day; and the cluster of employees gossiping, cracking jokes. I heard once that 80% of Filipinos are under the age of 30, or something like that - the gist was that it's a young population, and this is true. And many are trying to get out of the country to find better prospects: to Saudi, Hong Kong, Australia, United States, Canada, Europe. Every country I've visited, and I think I've been to around 40, has always had Filipino immigrants.

So the hurly-burly, the self-importance, the social-climbing can be looked at as amusing. At least I find them such, now.