Pirates and Gold
When I first started thinking about the trip to The Philippines and began doing research on it’s history, I pretty quickly came up with two themes that I would keep in my mind throughout the trip, and then they could reveal themselves in any way. It is, of course, the title of this entry.
Piracy and The Philippines seems to be a natural fit: The archipelago of over 7700 islands would provide the kind of safe haven for any kind of skallywag,
As far as the gold, I had heard a couple of stories, but the most compelling and often told is that of the gold caches that were hidden under the orders of
Also, Quiapo is a place where there have been plenty of schemes planted, and al Queda involvement is a widely-speculated theory by natives
I’ve been to Quiapo twice now, and the adjacent area of Recto, and it seems to affirm the fact that impermanence is the only constant in Manila– after we bombed the shit out of the vast majority of what could be considered cultural landmarks in Manila during WWII, it could be safe to say that Manila has never recovered from it. Newness and rebuilding have seemed to be a permanent fixture in the story of the Philippines anyway.
Quiapo is the essence of this spirit– it is an evershifting city with no way of knowing how to get something unless you have a guide, piracy abounds, with cds at 50 cents and Criterion dvds at 2 dollars, massive amounts of money are pouring into the area, an area which, if you believe the projection of locals, will be burned down in the next year because the buisinesses squat in large buildings, two to three stories high, windowless and air-conditioned, muslim filipinas squarfed and taking money and requests for new titles– stacks and stacks and stacks of product, done with slimline cd holders and cheap printout covers, with all the latest in pop, modern rock, and cheesy bossanova versions of everything under the sun.