a close look at a life about manila's urban survival

7/24/2019 A Close Look at a Life About Manila's Urban Survival

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Klarizza Anne M. Obispo

“A CLOSE LOOK AT A LIFE ABOUT

MANILA’S URBAN SURVIVAL”

A reaction paper in response to BBC’s documentary

“Toughest Place to be a… Bus Driver (2010)”

INTRODUCTION

Manila: The Real-Life Hunger Games

These recent years, many people, particularly, the Filipinos are all raving about the latest

plot trends in films and novels, with post-apocalyptic theme like the “Hunger Games”,

“Divergent” or even the “Maze Runner”. The fascination with the kind of struggles thecharacters are suffering from the mentioned novels, is strikingly evident. But alas, we don’t

actually need to look elsewhere, let alone read a book, to actually experience those kinds

of strives. Just look around here in Manila, and one will see that most people are living the

“hunger games”.

Manila, is notoriously, and arguably, the most densely-populated city in the world. With

over two million people cramming in its evidently scarce realm every day, Manila surely

is the real world Battle Royale in all its glory, or lack thereof. As of 2015, Metro Manila, is

one of the largest of the 35 cities that are considered as “Megacities”. The larger ones

included in the list are Tokyo, Seoul, New York, Shanghai, and Delhi. Conspicuously, all

the mentioned cities, but for Manila, are avenues of advancement and modernization, in

their own rights. It is no surprise then that living in Manila is like a cruel game of survival.

Most people here “ work” to “live”— in fact, the use of the word “living” is almost a crime

in itself — these people barely live because they’re just a space away from surviving.

On Jeepneys and Poverty

If you’re a typical Filipino commuting to places every day, you have most certainly ridden

a jeepney at least one point in your life, and have probably heard its moniker as the “ king

of the road ”. But in all its dominance and distinction on people’s point-of-view, we could

all agree that there’s not even a tinge of royalty in driving one.

In a BBC documentary series “Toughest Place to be A…”, the show offered various working

or retired professionals in the United Kingdom, a different and more challenging workingenvironment in the same profession they worked in. These individuals travel to a foreign



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country to learn and work under the new environment for ten days. It aims not just to

compare the lives of people from two countries with the same occupation; but to explore

the lifestyle of people living in the third world country.

In one of its episode, the show focused on the city of Manila, wherein a Londoner bus drivernamed Josh would try his hand as a “ jeepney” driver in the mayhem-nurtured city. Josh

would have to stay in the Philippines for ten days, living the same life as of the typical

jeepney driver-in this case, the life of man named “Rogelio Castro”.

Prior to arrival in the Philippines, Josh confesses to knowing nothing about the Philippines

other than the unverifiable Imelda Marcos' tittle-tattle. Apparently, his life is a light year

away from Rogelio’s. While Josh has a stable job driving an automatic, modern, 35

thousand pound bus along London's organized roads and road regulations, Rogelio sweats

out all day, whole week, in a manually-driven, and awfully small jeepney through the

muddled, jammed streets of Manila.

Rogelio: Reflection of the Typical Juan

“ There’ s no industry here, there’ s nothing you can do here” remarked Josh, during his visit

on Rogelio’s hometown. Before the last quarter of the documentary film, the two guys

visited the place where Rogelio grew. Just like most Filipinos living in the shanties,

Rogelio Castro, came to Manila in search of a better life. Having no educational

background at all, Rogelio was compelled to do multitude of low-paying jobs, and

eventually became a jeepney driver.

It is important to take note that Rogelio, or any other jeepney drivers for this matter, do not

just drive — they also act as the mechanic, the cleaner, the conductor and sometimes, the

engineer, of their respected jeepneys. Doing all this work, Rogelio would only make

around 600 pesos a day — an amount which Josh could earn for less than an hour of work inthe UK.

On Josh's first day, Rogelio broke down while explaining the gruelling life he had to

experience every day, and his inability to escape from the crushing weight of poverty. He

was basically running just to stand still. Josh was overcome with emotion as he realised

that despite them both being bus drivers only one of them was destined for a life of

drudgery. But make no mistake though, as Rogelio actually had it better than most.

Whereas, most people use other people’s jeepney for their jobs, Rogelio owns his. He also

lives in a slightly decent three-storey house, and could afford to “chill-out” on malls at



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times. He also at least eats a decently cooked food from home. In one of the segments of

the show, Josh went to Tondo, to witness Rogelio’s beginnings. They featured the thing

called “pagpag” which literally pertains to “dusted off food” recooked and turned it into

“recycled meal”. Scavengers will collect discarded and half eaten chicken remnants from

the garbage cans outside Manila's numerous fast food restaurants and root through them

to pick out the bits they can re-use (mostly bones, cartilage with the odd bit of rancid

chicken attached). They would sell these on to pagpag “chefs” who will recook the

rubbish and sell it on to slum dwellers for as little as five peso. This is a staple for people

in that area, as this supplies their only meal for the day. It is truly a shocking state of affairs.

This could come off as disgusting but it made me feel sad and frightened to know the gap

between the poor and rich in our country can be measured by what we throw in our bins.

It is worrisome, indeed, that our country is being portrayed this way — but what bothers

me more, is that, I already find the whole thing depressing despite the fact that the

condition being shown on the documentary is not even half of what the real situation is.

This makes me question the legitimacy of Josh’s remark mentioned previously. Do we

really have no industry in the province? Or do people fail to consider “agriculture” as an

industry itself?

Philippines: The Poverty Pornography Paradise

“It’s not your fault if you’re born in the gutter but it is your fault if you die there.”

The documentary series was, if anything else, eye-opening and well-made. Yet, I can’t

discount the fact that the intention of such series is to capitalize on other people’s

vulnerability. But what can I say, we did it to ourselves, being the subject of such poverty

exploitation, as bad as it sounds, has still its own merits.

Throughout the documentary, I can’t help but to feel anger more than remorse. At 35:59,Rogelio asked, what every people from his situation would ask; “ why are there rich people,

why are there poor people? It doesn’ t seem fair.” (NON-VERBATIM)

I refute the validity of such question in the context of it being a mere fallacy. Yes, life is

everything but fair, but people are neither rich nor poor just because of life ’s unfairness.

Rich people have worked for it, thus setting a foothold for their future generation, and

assuring a better life for their offspring. People earn what they work for. Rogelio should

stop limiting himself by setting his standards low, just because he’s poor. If anything, the

poorer we are, the higher our dreams should be. Alleviating one’s condition, and winning



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against poverty isn’t just God’s will or the government’s job. We are responsible for

ourselves. We should stop blaming the church and the government for our failures. It’s not

enough to work hard, people must also work smart. And in order to work smart, we should

invest in education. “Investing” doesn’t have to be in monetary form, investment could

come in form of time and effort. I, myself, came from a modest family of five kids. My

parents, having no luxury of paying for our school, have though us the value of education

early in our childhood. In doing so, we kids, are ignited to study hard to get scholarships

and grants from various institutions. Unsurprisingly, upon graduating from the University

of the Philippines, my older brother and sister, have surely gone a mile better, financially

and career wise — and they’re only just getting started. Similarly, Rogelio as a parent,

should instill the value of education amongst his children, and grandchildren, and stop

making excuses for himself.

CONCLUSION

People, no matter from what financial status, or race, they’re into are entitled to live. But

with entitlement comes an accountability — an accountability to make the most out of the

resources you’re provided with. It is needless to say that every one has a responsibility

into alleviating the depressing state of poverty in the country. For instance, the Baranggay

San Andres which is featured in the said documentary, could implement workshops and

seminars that could be beneficial to the poor. On the other hand, the city of Manila, could

take this exploitation of poverty, as a challenge to improve the road system and

regulations of the city. But all this effort would not be possible if it would not start within

ourselves. We should take the initiative and hopefully, someday, this collective effort

could turn our country from a figure of poverty to a model of development.

a close look at a life about manila's urban survival

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