Red Light Night In Manila

When I first landed in Manila, I asked my friend "Where is the red light district here?" He gave me a smirked and by the look of his face I know he has no idea where....He told me places like gateway in which he coined as "GAY-WAY". I laughed at his words knowing that gays will flock there at night like hungry little birds tweeting for food!, but anyhow I will soon going to visit the legendary "GAY-WAY" just to see whats around there. My first night in Manila was rough! It was all different, and in Tondo and Quiapo, everyone was very tough to handle. After all I am not established here yet, unlike in Cebu where mobs, goons, mafias and gangs recognizes me as the "Kubyerta" (a gang term for "Mediator"-a middle ranked negotiator who is privileged to obtain mob immunity-no one can harm me except the leaders of the group) but here in Manila everything is a different story, I am no kubyerta here and the immunity I obtain in central Visayas is not applicable in Luzon, a Mafia rule termed as Inpluwensya "the code of geographical influence".

It was near late evening and I was walking near SM Manila, just below the Central Station LRT, I noticed a flock of girls. The way they look at me was very familiar, the way female sex worker looked at me back in Cebu. So I shoved my curiosity off and started to walk towards them. I met Annie, she is 18 and she is a free lance sex trader in Manila, She told me it's her first time in Central Station and she finds it tough to find a customer here. Unlike Subic, she said. I can have a "buyer" in every corner of the alley. I told her I came from Cebu and I asked here what it is like to be a "pok pok" in Manila.

"Ang Hirap!"(so difficult) she told me, "Ginagawa ko lang to para may makakain kami" (I am [just] doing this to feed my family). A story that is not uncommon to my ear. "How old are you when you got sex trading?" I asked "Ano po?" she replied, and there I know that she is slow in English so I need to translate it in tagalog, the problem is I am not good in tagalog. She told me she started at the age of 15, again it was not uncommon to me, I met girls as young as 7 years old in Cebu giving sex to old foreign guys.

I can read her motifs, she is zero that night and no customers. "Mahirap sa Manila, may curfew dito at stricto ang mga police sa amin, minsan nga dinadakip kami para makalabas kami hinahayaan nalang namin na magsex kami para makalaya kami. I raised my eye brows and said "really?!, Pag nakilala ko mga gagong yun, makikita nila pano magalit mga Cebuano!" to give here comfort. It was near 10:00 p.m and I said to her I must go to my boarding house, I asked her if she will be here the next night, she told me "Hindi [kami], nagiistambay ng isang lugar, dapat kami palipat lipat para makakuha ng daddy...wala kasi kaming mamasan na nagmamanage sa amin..." I laughed at her statement though I know she said it seriously, so I went on to find a jeep home...I looked at her heavy burdened face that manages to give me a smile, "Sana kuya magkita tayo uli sa panahon na nakakaahon na ako sa buhay para mapakilala ako uli sayo hindi bilang isang pokpok" she said, and I replied " Magkikita tayo, Pohon"(A mistake that confirmed my Cebuano Ethnicity).......and I know that night is the start of my new misadventures here in Manila. And I am expecting colorful happenings to come!