I'm on my keyboard pondering with great uncertainty on the choice of which would be more noteworthy for my first feature of places that I've laid my footprints on. Should I start with the laid back and liberal city of California, the bustling and cosmopolitan city of New York, the great beaches and clear waters of Northern Marianas Islands, the majestic Falls of Canada, when ...
... oh, yeah, I almost forgot ... East Rembo, Fort Bonifacio ... the place where it all started.
East Rembo is one of the several "barangays" in Fort Bonifacio, a place located on the periphery of Makati, one of the municipalities of Metro Manila which is often referred to as the Financial Capital of the Philippines.
I remember walking the rough roads of this neighborhood which was once lined-up with a milieu of green and shady trees . Back then you would hear younger people call elders "Uncle" or "Auntie". I also recall walking up the 81 steps stone stairs at the Target Range, a route I would usually take to escape the swarm of early morning commuters that crowd the main street of Pateros-Guadalupe.
This is a neighborhood where almost everybody knows anybody. Here you will find people by name and not by their house numbers. I remember neighbors, like the Madriagas, good-naturedly handing over food ( at most times “pinakbet” ), the Ignacios and Neduazas who were like an extension of my own family ( having the same provincial roots ), the Ducays and Darjuans, whose sons Ison and Boie I used to spend early afternoon and late evenings with.
This is also the place where I first learned to play basketball ( very late for a 17 year old! ), learned to play the guitar and started hanging out with my own "barkadas" ( Jojo/Bobby Nala, Ric Mata, Lee Orate, The Salcedos, Jun Fernandez, Eric "Peanut" de los Reyes, Edgar "Egay" Garrote and Allan Sanchez ).
Not everything was just all fun and play for this would also be the place where I would experience my first love, heartbreaks, frustrations, challenges, struggles ... you name it, and most likely it happened to me here first.
And you guessed it right, this is also the place where I would meet this meek, young, 5'2" tall, white uniform wearing nursing student who, 7 years later, would become my wife.
Compared to the rich and prominent "villages" in the nearby upscale areas of Makati ( Forbes Park, Dasmarinas, San Lorenzo etc ), this is no gated-community and suburbanization has yet to see and reach it's peak. There's no mile square park here with luscious pond and water fountains , no 100 yard football field to play weekends on , and to some, a very unlikely place to start weaving your "white picket fences" dream.
But despite it's limitations, this place would mean a lot to me for it once served me well as my home. Moreover, this is where I would find my "crossroad". And although I veered away from it's path, the memories and the days I spent living in this neighborhood would prove to be, like what they say in the TV ad, "priceless".
East Rembo Ft. Bonifacio, albeit lacking in grandeur and posh, would turn to it's people for redemption. With no architecturally defined structures nor homes with aesthetically pleasing facade to earn any acclamation from first time visitors, this neighborhood would rely on it's people, the memories and moments you would share with them, and their hospitality to up heave it's image thus making it truly worthy of a revisit.
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