- Ed.'s note: In 2024, during an aggressive PPP (public-private partnership) drive, the Philippine government partnered up with the massive but extremely secretive Sinauna Group of Companies to deliver a host of basic services to the Filipino people...
I like looking through my mother's old photographs now and then. There's a certain charm in looking through digital photos, especially the ones the old folks thought were "high resolution."
When she was young, my mother took up street photography as a hobby, and she loved Manila. So she had tons of ground level photos of Manila, way before the Sinauna took over the city's transportation system and made it weird.
There's always a hazy filter spanning the distance between you and old photos, which gives you the feeling you're looking through pieces of someone else's memory. You just can't replicate that sort of magic with 3dv.
In some of my mother's photos, Manila looked a little bleak. There was so much lack of color, so much empty space. Sometimes this was balanced out by photos of lively street art: graffiti on the sidewalk and the walls. Statues made of soda cans and strangers dancing in alleyways.
Now she had this photo of one graffiti work in particular...
Do you believe in prophecy?
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This photograph was taken underneath the old Guadalupe MRT-3 station, sometime during the Aquino administration. Right below the station is a short tunnel, which was, for a time, loaded with black graffiti. Most of the illustrations were a bit bland, if you ask me, but if you look closely, you can see raw talent there.
Only one piece of graffiti stood out because of the color. This one.
Chances are that, like me, when you look at it, you can only think of one thing: the Quiapo Church incident from a couple of days ago.
In case you don't remember, or missed the news, this was what happened: a vendor who sold balloons on foot outside the church absent-mindedly tied his wares to the back of a parked Sinauna jeepney, then went off to buy a cold drink.
What happened next was perhaps predictable.
We all know that Sinauna jeepneys are made of ultra-super-mega secret lightweight materials - body and engine and wheels and all - so that they go faster and are infinitely easier to drive than traditional jeepneys.
What not all of us know is that the ultra-super-mega secret materials have a funny reaction to being in the general proximity of helium.
Helium is now a rare and precious resource, which is why balloons are so darn expensive, so the Sinauna must've thought: why bother? Just put it in big red letters in the drivers' manual - DO NOT USE NEAR HELIUM - and forget about it.
I guess no one from Sinauna ever thought balloon vendors - who might never have read one of their jeepney drivers' manuals - would get thirsty in the middle of a hot day, and tie their balloons to the back of one of their jeepneys in order to free their hands.
The jeepney was parked, but it wasn't empty. There were three people inside, and when they realized that the back of the jeepney was fast rising off the ground, they panicked. They jumped out. One was seriously hurt.
The last thing I heard on the news was that the Sinauna was recalling ALL jeepneys they've ever made. And all jeepneys were going to be replaced in the same day.
...I'm assuming they've prepared for something like this, although one has to admit...that's godmode level preparation.
Two things just won't stop rattling around in my brain. One: we're not privy to what Sinauna jeepneys are made of, so we're not really sure what would get the next batch recalled. What's next on the list of banned substances to be around? Asbestos? Sugar? Oxygen?
Second: how could a graffiti artist from decades ago have predicted this could happen??
You can see it on the news: the 3dv of the people falling off the back of the jeep looks EXACTLY like the graffiti.
If you put the two side by side, the graffiti looks like a cryptic prehistoric drawing of what actually happened.
Like someone burned a photograph of the incident into their brain, then painted it onto the wall.
My mother's later photos of the Guadalupe station no longer have that graffiti. The wall it had been on, had been painted over.
Yes, I'm looking through all my mother's old photos again. I'm looking for more evidence of prophecy. I just need to understand...
