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There Have Been Other Adventures in my Life

A Riot in Manila

Napajohnb
2006-01-03 20:31:04

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The political situation in the Philippines in early 1970 was tense. There was resurgent, low level guerrilla activity and sporadic demonstrations and some rioting in the urban areas. Marcos, already unpopular with the student movement was responding with increasingly repressive measures.

As a young seaman newly arrived to WESTPAC, I was blissfully unaware of this, the news at the time being dominated by the war in Vietnam. There was also little talk of such things in the insulated world of the Navy town of Olangapo. There were other things there that captured the interests of most sailors.

When I got the invitation from one of the stewards to visit his family in Manila it seemed like an excellent chance to really learn something of the country and it�s people. Never mind that sailors were restricted to Olongapo, we were restricted from Baggio, too, and everyone was ignoring that rule.

Pete, the steward, provided me with some civvies when we got to town (as an E3 I was not allowed civilian clothes in foreign ports) and we were soon on the bus for Manila.

The ride was beautiful jungle and colorful bustling towns and I was in a travelers heaven of the new and exotic. On the way in I commented on how religious the people were, with crosses painted on all the houses. Pete laughed and said that these crosses were a holdover from an older religion and meant to protect the house from evil spirits from the jungle. When I was accosted in a station by some particularly aggressive plantain vendors he stepped in to drive them off, he was a good host.

We arrived in Manila and went straight to his home in the suburbs. Pete was greeted as a homecoming hero and a big celebration quickly ensued. There was much beer, some balut (don�t ask) lumpia and other delicacies and lots of relatives passing through. We toured the local neighborhood and mall and I was struck by the presence of armed guards ...