Breakfast and Remembrance: ALING OTIK

 


Chances are if one hasn't been in the 1970s, there is a big possibility that one might conclude the photo was taken a few years ago. Nope, the image is more than 40 years old. The most striking in the scene perhaps are the sidewalks, gutters as we know them, our only connection to foot travel in the Metro -- And they haven't really changed. But lo, I must say the street sweeper takes center stage right away. Don't you think so? Aling Otik?
Who remembers Aling Otik? That comic strip character of a "Mangwawalis"- Whose true essence, many say is masked in that perfumed term "Metro Manila Aide", a regime trying to put all the dirt under the carpet. I remember its creator Nonoy Marcelo whom I felt struggled to put his social critique in those strips. Often becoming too ironic. But I like it.
Remember the motto, Metro Manila City of Man? Once a storm with names such as: Cedeng, Ebeng, Asing, Kading whatever raged for days, roads were devastated-- Metro Manila City of Manholes! The Aling Otiks were always one of the first to do the cosmetic touches to the city. Hala sige walis!
I saw street sweepers even in EDSA when I escaped once from the house just to watch Rocky II in Cubao. Yet the thing that I am reminded always of EDSA that time was the large murals on semi-tall buildings "Kulay Anyo Ng Lahi", celebrating the First Lady's attempt to herald her own brand of "Filipinismo".
Millennials won't understand what I'm saying here, they won't even bother if I would say; old photos of models of black and white TV excite me. Even my description of jeepneys plying all around the metropolis then with walls of 8 track tapes on top of dashboards will be entirely alien. Recalling also my struggle to get a view in the jeepney's front seat -- Always, the color of Aling Otik dominates the city.
I am in the belief that in a parallel universe, Metro Manila is a clean city. Aling Otik is the President.
Pasig City. July 2021

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