Coming To Manila, Day 3: Driving Around Manila And A Visit To Congress

This is a long one folks, as this day probably had the most things happen during our trip.

Since Nonoy and everybody else was working this particular day,Tommy and I were
almost on our own for the first part of the day. I say "almost" because Tatay sent Boyet (Rodel's brother, who also drives for Tatay) to the hotel with another car and he was going to drive us around before we visited Congress for a visit in the afternoon.

So after breakfast at the Jeepney Cafe again, we met up with Boyet outside the Intercon and we were off. The first order of business was a visit to my Tito Alex Gaston, in the Greenhills area. Tito Alex is one of my dad's oldest and dearest friends, and he is also my godfather (or "ninong") from my baptism. Tito Alex was the broker who facilitated the purchase of the condo I referred to in a previous post as well.



So we drove from Makati to San Juan, and when we got to Tito Alex's condo building, we needed to provide I.D. in order to get in. It was at that point I realized that I had lost my driver's license at some point. It could be in any of three places: New York, South Korea or the Philippines. Ugh. Somewhere in one of those three countries, another Erwin D. Tonogbanua could be running around. Good thing I had my office building access card with me.

Tito Alex, TJC and I got lunch at a Teriyaki Boy nearby and then he shows us around the area some more, ending up at the Greenhills Mall. At around 1 P.M., we parted ways as he had a meeting to go to and we had our tour of Manila to take care of. So Boyet drove us towards Manila, closer to the area where my family and I called home for almost 13 years. Passed by a lot of familiar sights and "personal" landmarks. Like, we drove past the street where we would always drive up from our place in order to drop off my sister at her school (St. Scholastica's) before my dad would drop me off at mine (Don Bosco). We also drove past this intersection along the very busy Taft Avenue which I always remembered as my visual cue as a kid riding home on the school bus that I was about 10 minutes away from being dropped off. Drove past the entrance of the Manila Zoo, drove along Roxas Boulevard right next to Manila Bay, past the Manila Hotel and past Luneta with its monument to Jose Rizal, the National Hero of the Philippines.



Boyet dropped us of at Intramuros, and we checked out the Manila Cathedral and Fort Santiago. After checking that out, we made our way back to the car, and on our way there we saw this little carriage being pulled by a mini-horse! We wanted to take some pictures but the litter f'er galloped away too quickly.

We were due in Congress around 4 PM, and it was about 3 PM already, but I had to indulge a very personal itch and I asked Boyet to drive us to the old apartment where my family used to live in, which was not so far away. He just needed to get us to Paco Park, another landmark, and at that point, I knew how to get us there.

On our way there, we drove past some more personally memorable spots; the Manila Medical Center, where my little brother was born. It was also where my mom would drag my sister and I to see our pediatrician and the site of many, many, many vaccination shots for us. Ouch. We also drove past the San Marcelino Church, where my family and I went to church every Sunday for ages, and where we met dear family friends to these day such as Fr. Gregg, Fr. Vargas and Fr. Kir.

We finally hit Paco Park and I proceed to give Boyet directions how to get to the old place. Make a right on Apacible, with the E.N. Ty Hospital on the corner (hmmmm, the street and the hospital were MUCH bigger in my mind's eye and memory), and the next street is Agoncillo and on the corner is our old place: 1355 F. Agoncillo Street, Ermita, Manila. We stopped on the corner and I take some pictures.



It still looks exactly as we left it, really. We had the entire 3rd floor of the building we lived in, and that was uninhabited now. On the corner of the place was my parent's bedroom, and it overlooked Agoncillo and Apacible. My bedroom and my sister's were on opposite sides of my folks', with mine facing Apacible and my sister's Agoncillo. At the end was the kitchen and where our help slept. The first 2 floors were Mrs. Mendoza's and her family's (she passed away some time ago) and that was all boarded up and empty as well. My sister and I were such good childhood friends with Mrs. Mendoza's grandkids - Benedict and Dominic - until they moved to California a few years before we moved to New York, and I have fond memories of playing with them and the other neighborhood kids: The Jalandonis, The Carpios and Mon-Mon.

I took a look around the area, and the wave of sentiment which hit me was tempered with a sense of reality. The area really has become so "different" and unfamiliar to me.

On the first floor also was Mrs. Mendoza's California Barber Shop, and obviously that was closed. On the other corner was Peter's Barber Shop, and that was shut down and boarded up as well. Across from our apartment on Apacible used to be this 2 or 3 story house (I remember looking at it from my bedroom window for ages), and it was an empty lot now. I did not even get a chance to see if our old neighbors were still living in the area. Our neighborhood was always busy, but now it it was just ridiculously congested with traffic and seemed so dirty that the old, nice neighborhood I used to love so much seemed like it was from 10 lifetimes before.

So with that done, off we went to Congress, passed by some more familiar landmarks like the University of Santo Tomas. As we drove past the Quezon Circle, Nonoy by pure coincidence, was driving right next to us! A quick phone call later, he told us to follow him to the University of the Philippines Diliman campus. We did, and after he found a parking spot, he joined us in our car and he gave us an impromptu tour of his alma mater.

After that was done, Nonoy told us to not take too long at Congress so we could meet up and grab dinner. So off we were again to Congress, and when we got there, Rodel was waiting for us outside and he brought us to Tatay's office. Manang Tata, being Tatay's Chief of Staff, was there, along with Rock (Manang Tata's cousin from her mother's side, also a childhood friend of mine), and Tita Nori (the mother of Mic, another childhood friend).

I asked Manang Tata if our Tito Mat Defensor was around. Tito Mat is a congressman as well, and besides being my mom's first cousin, he is also another godfather of mine. As coincidence would have it, he was in Tatay's conference room, smoking. I will always have a lot of affection and gratitude to my Tito Mat. I can give you lots of examples of what he did for me, but one thing I will never forget was the night before my family was immigrating to New York, he stopped by our house and gave me $100 as a goodbye gift. $100 to a 12 year old was a fortune! Heck, at 31 years old, I still would not say no to anybody giving me $100.

Tito Mat and I, along with his chief of staff and TJC, had a nice conversation at Tatay's office/conference room, and they had some food from the Congressional Dining Room brought in for us. Tatay then arrived with some more congressmen in tow, and he summoned Tito Mat for a meeting so we had to say goodbye.

Rock then showed us around Congress, and we even stepped inside the chamber while it was in session. Manang Tata then insisted we stop by their house, which was about 10 minutes away, before meeting up with Nonoy so we can check it out and also see the kids.

So we do that, and there we see Tita Doris, Ina, Migs and Brix (have I mentioned that I am Brix's godfather by the way?). Ina was doing homework when we got there, while Migs was in the living room watching TV, and Brix was in his parents' bedroom watching the same exact show Migs was. Migs and Brix got very very hyper when they started playing with their toys, and they were running around and screaming like banshees while Ina was practicing her piano PERFECTLY 2 feet away from them.



I join them downstairs and Migs and Brix set up a game of basketball on their mini hoop between me and the 2 of them in their living room. These kids are powered on sugar and caffeine I think, because they ran around like the devil was after them in the tiny space where we were playing. At one point, I decided to "dunk" the ball, catch it as it came out of the bottom and repeat over and over again, wherein Brix decided to yell out "CHEATER! YOU'RE A CHEATER!!!!!!" non stop. Hahahahaha.



I was beat, folks, And thankfully Nonoy arrived to pick us up and that was the cue for everybody to relax. We got to have a short, adult conversation with Ina and that was very enjoyable. We were talking about her piano playing at one point, and then Brix announces to everybody that according to his big sister, there's a dead girl inside the piano so that's why he and Migs should never touch it. Ina had this look of horror on her face as she desperately tried to shush Brix up, but she relaxed when Nonoy, TJC and I just started laughing hysterically instead. I thought it was hilarious she told her brothers that. It sounded like something her mother and my sister would come up with and tell Nonoy and myself when we were kids.


So Nonoy, TJC and I went off to dinner at Italiani's at the Glorietta Mall. While we there, Nonoy got a phone call from Manang Tata, saying that there was a bombing at Congress! There was some obvious concern and worry from all of us obviously, but Manang Tata assured us that Tatay, her and the rest of his staff were fine. The news came out some time later that it was an assassination attempt on Cong. Wahab Akbar, who was killed in the blast.

Our mood was somewhat dampened by the news, but the news that our loved ones were okay and safe brightened us up. We finished up with dinner, and then headed back to the Intercon, where the 3 of us sat and drank at the same poolside bar TJC and I went to on Day 1.

As we were drinking, I noticed a group of people walk in and sit about 200 feet from us. I told Nonoy that I think one of them was Ate Michelle's sister-in-law Grace. Grace is a manager at the Intercon, and she hooked us up with our room. And, in the "small world" department, besides being Ate Michelle's sister-in-law, Grace went to high school with my sister, and were actually in the same class.

Nonoy took a look from where we were seating, and said he doesn't think it's her, that Grace looked different than that person, etc. I was like, okay I'll take your word for it. A few minutes later, one of the waiters comes up to us and asks what room we were staying at. I thought it was for the bill, so I told him. 30 seconds after THAT, the lady whom I thought was Grace and whom Nonoy said wasn't comes up to us and introduces herself as.... yup, Grace.

Grace explains to us that she was with her bosses right now, and Nonoy, being the slick lawyer that he is, starts telling her "Oh, yeah, we were not sure if it was you, but we thought you looked busy, that's why we didn't want to bother you and ask." Hahahaha. Kid's good.


So after a few more drinks, it was time to say goodbye. The following day was going to be our last full one in Manila before we headed off to the provinces, and little did I know the shock I was going to experience a few weeks later partly because of the events of the following night.