Thursday, December 18, 2014

Gapo- Olongapo City of d Pilipins

If you are looking for heritage houses and other significant places in Olongapo City, you are surely in the wrong place. Traversing the streets of Olongapo, all we find are cemented houses, sauna and massage parlors, motels as well as old bars that are remnants of the occupation of the US Naval Forces in the city. As we go on foot along Magsaysay Avenue, we are greeted with loud band music and seedy bars that still line the streets; run down establishments that still bear traces of the heat and rhythm of the nights when bar girls in skimpy bikinis and G.I. Joes cavort inside bars and dimly lit corners of some alleys. Instead of this, we now find young men and women frequenting the place, smoking cigarettes and downing bottles of beer as bands played until the wee hours of the morning.

So what then is interesting in a place once dubbed as a city of sin? It has produced amerasian beauties brought about by the intermarriage between americans and filipinos. Megan Young who was crowned Miss World 2013 and Brethnie Cay Philips, Miss Teen Earth Philippines 2013 hail from the place.

A young generation with pop culture whose lives revolve around music and electronic gadgets has sprung. Theirs is a generation that has no knowledge of the past; that the generation before them consisted of people who were either pro americans who lived the american dream or anti americans who marched the streets to protest the presence of the american bases and fought to free the filipinos from the claws of american imperialism.

As we take the bus bound for Iba, I can't help but ponder about the transcience of life. A few wrinkles on my forehead and strands of white hair that are starting to appear are cues for me that indeed time fleets fast; hence, I have to appreciate whatever is in a place and enjoy the trip to any place the bus of life takes me.