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A Riot in Manila

Napajohnb
2006-01-03 20:31:04

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at the entrance of the mall. As middle class citizens, the family proudly showed off the newest addition to their house, an indoor flush toilet. It was a great few hours and we were sad when time came to leave.

We boarded a local bus for central Manila, where we were to catch the bus back to Olongapo, and drove straight into chaos. Thousands of students, protesting the Marcos� policies were marching on the Government Palace.

We got off the local bus and headed for the bus station but a crowd of young men started forming nearby, casting threatening looks my way, apparently their anger at Marcos extended to Americans. We hailed a cab and started for a cousins house, seeking refuge. The cab driver took the shortest route. Unfortunately this led right past the Palace.

The cab drove right between a huge crowd on one side and a line of Philippine soldiers on the other. They were lined up at the fence of the Palace. Seeing me in the cab a few students threw things our way, but none caused any damage.
This was too much for the driver, however, and when he had driven around the corner he ordered us from his cab and we found ourselves on the street. We set out at a good pace, short of running, trying to put some distance between us and the confrontation at the Palace.

A group of students spotted us and began to follow so we took off at a run around the corner. There we were saved. There was one of the open city busses there, with bench seats, and the people on the bus, sensing our predicament, motioned for us to board the bus and put us in the middle of one of the bench seats and closed in around us. The bus started forward and the students, rounding the corner, ran right by, not seeing us. A narrow escape.

After much wandering and more narrow escapes we finally gained his cousins house on a narrow little downtown side street, a little after dark. As crowds were now wandering the streets it was decided that we could not try for the depot again and I left town in the trunk of his cousins car.

We reached the highway back to Olongapo and finally caught a bus for the long ride back, relieved to be safe. A short while later, though, the bus was stopped at a roadblock. Armed soldiers came aboard and checked all the passengers and ordered me onto the floor of the bus for the rest of the trip. The bus ahead of us had Americans aboard and had been fired on by Huks (communist guerrillas) who were inspired, I suppose, by the riots in the city. I spent the next hour on the floor, happy enough to be there and we made it back to the ship safe and sound, though a little late. After what we�d been through that day, conning our way past a couple of Marine guards at the gate was a piece of cake.

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