An arm and a leg

At the jewelry section of the SM Cebu Department Store there's a necklace with a price tag of P330,000. And a pair of earrings with a price tag of P285,000. I wasn't there to actually buy jewelry, but I just happened to pass by there while doing some other Christmas shopping.

This is probably the first time I've come face-to-face with such expensive stuff with the full perspective of comparing those prices to my own salary. Hah, It's well more than what I make in a year. With that much money you could make perhaps a dozen of those Gawad Kalinga houses for the poor. That kind of extravagance in a third world country just doesn't make sense to me. They didn't even seem that nice to me, actually... it's that huge garish shit that Imelda Marcos puts on herself.

I guess the saleslady could tell that I wasn't actually the type that would be interested in buying any jewelry there, because she didn't bother attending to me aside from giving a lazy "Good evening, sir". Maybe my scruffy hair and the fact that I was going around the mall with a backpack gave away my intentions. Or perhaps the look of horror on my face when I saw the prices.

Big fire

Loren and I were coming out from Ayala last night at around 8:30PM and we were approaching the jeepney terminal when we saw a huge plume of smoke rising from a big fire that seemed to be not too far away. We couldn't see much of the fire itself aside from a few flames reaching over the tops of trees, but we could see the flying sparks and the orange glow of the fire reflected on the tower of smoke. In any case, in was obvious that something big was on fire that shouldn't be.

A large fire at night is a spectacular sight, with the contrast of orange flames against the dark violet night sky. As much as I did sincerely hope that nobody was hurt, I just couldn't resist the chance to see a big destructive fire. We were in Cebu Business Park, so maybe the fire was coming from something big! Maybe even a high rise building! Maybe some terrorists were in Cebu for the (postponed) ASEAN Summit and decided to blow up something anyway! It sounds horrible to be excited by the prospect of destruction, but, well, that's me.

So, as if it was the most natural thing in the world (and without even knowing exactly where the fire was coming from), the two of us walked towards the direction of the fire to hopefully get a chance to see more of it. We walked for a few minutes passing over a grassy and slightly muddy area beside the Ayala Center, and encountered a security guard and asked him what he knows. It turns out the fire was probably coming from a squatters area behind a wall. I guess the prospect of making our way towards a squatters area dulled our excitement, because we gave up trying to reach the fire. Besides, we could hear sirens and the fire was probably being put out already.

I guess nothing too important was burned, since I can't find anything about the fire in the newspapers (even in the local papers). Oh well.

Update (December 12, 2006, 1:57PM): There's an article about the fire in today's Sun.Star Cebu. It lasted 8:08PM-9:44PM, razed at least 20 houses, caused P280,000 in damage, and left 3 people with minor injuries.

City under renovation

You know that feeling you get when you're rushing a major project at the last minute to meet a deadline? As the due date approaches you're suddenly becoming a monster of productivity, in the last two days you find yourself accomplishing more than you've done in the past two months, and you think to yourself "If only I had another day or two, this thing could be more than adequate, it could be incredible".

I felt that all the time in college. And with the ASEAN Summit suddenly postponed due to bad weather, I'm sure Cebu is feeling it too.

Now don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that Cebuanos are not competent enough to be hosting an international event like this. The government has been extremely diligent and thorough with it's preparations with the whole thing. All the bases seem to be covered and everything is set to impress.

Cebu is looking far cleaner and more beautiful than I've ever seen it. Practically all the major roads have been given a fresh layer of asphalt and lane markings, new lampposts and road signs have been installed, a lot of cracked up sidewalks have been cemented and had their curbs painted, and they've finally cleaned up the trash and rubble all around the place (most of it, at least). Most visibly, perhaps, the Cebu International Convention Center (built specifically with the ASEAN Summit in mind) is a beautiful and imposing structure. Even private businesses are sprucing themselves up to put out a good impression. I love the optimism in the air... Cebu's "We can do it!" attitude is so much healthier than Manila's "No you can't and we're all doomed!" pessimism.

We hear so much about how the government is so buried in red tape that it takes forever to get anything done, but the renovation of Cebu is a success story that makes me feel a lot more optimistic for the entire Philippines. The amazing thing about all this is that so much of it was completed just in the past few months or so. I've only been living here less than 3 months and that's been enough to feel Cebu's transformation.

Despite all the detractors, everyone seems to be putting in that extra burst of last-minute effort to make the event a success. Now with the summit postponed just a few days before it was scheduled they have that extra time that I have dreamed for with all those school projects that were a last-minute race to the finish. They can all breathe that sigh of relief knowing they have an extra month to polish Cebu to everything it can be.