Security in Silang

Took this photo at the Silang Municipal Hall last Monday, Laguna Day and Jose Rizal's birthday.
This was about a minute after missing an opportunity to shoot(a photo with my phone)...a photo of the Mayor outside her office, chatting briefly with constituents right next to where I stood.  It would have been one of those candid shots a la Time, Newsweek or Life (if you remember that mag you are old like me).
I do not know her and did not seek an audience with her, I was there for a transaction. Since I am apolitical and do not have friends nor close relatives in politics, the brief encounter was interesting in iterms of the sensation I felt.  From the way an employee waved me aside saying "dadaan si Mayor" to the way those who wanted to talk to her hunched humbly before her (well she is tall so maybe I exaggerate)...it is evident that change in little towns from reverence of their leaders at near-royal status can be...well..tough. The fact is theirs, like many ruling families in many other municipalities, has led this town forever. 

I must say however, I left Silang City Hall satisfied that theirs struck me as a decent office. This as opposed to other unkempt city offices where the employees, in dress and manner just reek of...corruption. Yes even out on the streets of Silang town proper, cars--2 different cars at 2 different times that morning, stopped to yield to ours going through! It was surprising because the courtesy was obvious...they didn't have to yield but they did.  I don't know if it being Rizal's birthday had anything at all to do with it, but whatever...I salute whoever drove those two (both red) cars.

I would like to know if the building itself is the original munisipyo from the time of Rizal (when was it founded? Climbing its wooden steps feels warm &fuzzy like entering a bahay na bato of the past. Also, transacting with them was fairly pleasant; decent and legitimate.

That was Monday. Tuesday evening, a terrible thing happened in one of Silang's up and coming villages. Wednesday morning, I heard about it. Thieves had broken into a home and shot the father of the family,killing him. By Thursday one of four suspects was  caught. By Friday, the other three were arrested. Incredibly, by today, we hear news that the three shall soon be released "for lack of a warrant". Apparently the police report was also bungled, with inaccuracies initially.

So, mayor, mayor in the hall...is your city one of the fairest in the land at all? The frequency of such similar crimes is common knowledge now. Please! Fix it!!

Exiting Fort Sto. Domingo

   Kid's (bouncy) eye view of almost seeing the exit of Ms. Napoles from Fort Sto. Domingo for her Senate date this morning.  Traffic along the Sta. Rosa-Tagaytay highway was probably not disrupted.  Network cameras scramble on the left side of the road perpendicular to the entrance road.  

   The only new changes in the area ever since her presence are the new, styled and uniform "white corn for sale" signs on the road...seemingly sponsored; and Crown Asia Valenza's Christmas tree and animated display.  

   How undisturbed this barangay is; it's nice this way.

  I don't mean to sound shallow or make light of current events.  I'm just as outraged, upset and frustrated as most Filipinos.  She has angered me, the senators involved have disappointed and angered from way back.  I feel sorry for the Education Secretary, Bro. Armin, whose efforts at managing the DepEd budget were lauded recently.  I weep for him and all our children. He has had to make do and build classrooms with the help of private companies.  The situation is still dire.  How do students make sense of this deprivation?  With today's circus, we are deluded into thinking we are getting educated on legal processes.  What exactly, what are we really teaching the children?

Cuartel de Sto. Domingo

    I didn't post the wrong photo. This is right past Crown Asia's Valenza Italian inspired village, and the area is Bgy. Sto. Domingo.  The Special Action Forces Training camp of the Philippine National Police, is here.  Fort Sto. Domingo sounds so familiar, but it took time before I realized the Cuartel de Sto. Domingo was most likely in that barangay, and not in the old bayan ng Sta. Rosa. I don't know why I had assumed it was in the other side--the Balibago, Tagapo sides where the city hall is located.   

     Even before this barangay, is Bgy. Don Jose, which covers the area of the Laguna Technopark, Paseo de Sta. Rosa and many small villages.  Both barangays have their metal arches marking the entrance to the barangays, on the right side of the Sta. Rosa-Tagaytay national highway.  Again, I dislike saying negative things sana, but I have to note that both barangay's roads are dirt roads.  It is sadder to see this in the Bgy. Don Jose, because this road is between Technopark tenants such as Panasonic.  I mean, it's supposed to be a World-class city now, this Sta. Rosa, but I guess that just means that it is host to such corporations. 

    Anyway, I digress.  I had seen just one old b/w pic of the cuartel online.  Google it now, and let me know if you find new information and pics, as there is really just now. Now everywhere I've lived, I have been interested in what has gone before.  I creep myself out trying to imagine exactly what went on in the land I am standing on.  In Makati's Bgy. Guadalupe Viejo and Poblacion, I would imagine natives by the Pasig river...but it was frustrating as I could not find any stories nor sketches of such scenes.  I wondered what could be found by digging along those banks.  The scant info I got mentioned that the entrance steps of the Nuestra Senora de Gracia used to reach all the way down to the river!

   Ayayay, here I go again going off on another topic...

   Back to that boring pic of a billboard. There is a road right in front of it, and that leads to the training camp's gate.  The men guarding it were very polite, explaining that no visitors are allowed to enter unless perhaps sponsored/led by the barangay captain, or a PNP official, or some such authority.  Neither have there been field trips to the place.  Here are photos of the cuartel circa 1800 and 2000, that I took at the Museum of Sta. Rosa:

 
   They're just ruins, I know, but very important and interesting.  This land people have been moving to, buying new houses and lots, once saw battle! I still can't believe these artifacts dug up from the cuartel, were just sitting by the museum door with no case nor cordon.  I mean, some nut could just take a fancy to them.

     You will not miss the Crown Asia Valenza Italian village...it right across Nuvali,too.  After these, you'll get to "Japanese corn" vendors lined up on the sidewalks on weekends.  This is Bgy. Sto. Domingo, which I imagine, is getting "world-class" too anyway with all the new developments.  It is still more special this way, I think:

   Hard to imagine just over a decade ago--well around 1995, 1996...when we began taking this route toward Tagaytay, we were actually afraid of passing here in the evening.  We would take the old way, the one that comes out to Cavite.
This Sta. Rosa-Tagaytay highway was dimly lit back then, and it was common knowledge that "salvaged" victims were dumped here.  I know this to be true---I have a cousin whose car was carjacked on their way out of NAIA (it happened on the way from the Pasig area to Libis, the same old modus operandi) and they were then dropped off in Sta. Rosa. They were unhurt, but their driver sustained a gunshot wound on the foot.  They hailed a tricycle home.  Even before then, we had been warned to avoid this route once it got dark. 

   What is it with me today, this is going everywhere but the cuartel. Well, that's just it. We can't even visit the cuartel until some sort of agreement is reached between the PNP and the local government.   Bet most of the people living here don't even realize the historical aspect of this land.  It would give it so much more significance and interest to know. I mean, the newness of places like Nuvali, the kitsch of Georgia model showrooms and the commercial Paseo can just be so...blah sometimes.  There are people out there who would appreciate the ruins.  And I think our children ought to.