i'd never try to give my life meaning by demeaning you...

i came from a seminar in makati today and had the company car reserved for my use since coding ang car ko. pauwi hindi na ako maihatid kasi makati ang central "station" ng lahat ng bank cars so i hitched a ride with my officemate to qc. had myself dropped off to east ave (half-hoping i'd see p in v luna which didn't happen anyway),then rode a jeep from east ave back to commonwealth around 6pm to save money on taxi fare. the smallest bill i had was php20 and i was near the driver enough to see he didn't have enough change so i decided to wait till we were near tandang sora so more passengers could load more loose change before finally yelling "bayad po!" to the driver.

we weren't too far away from glori's when 2 young men hailed the jeep, got in and sat beside me. bayad naman sila agad (at siniguro kong barya yung binayad nila) tapos andami ring bumaba after a few meters more. pero wala pa rin yung sukli ko.

tapos may inabot na sukli yung driver na pinasa-pasa ng mga pasahero sa side ko till it reached the young man beside me. he was holding onto it like he was about to pass it to me but he didn't, and his face was quite, well, undecided. so he kept the change clutched in his hand. naisip ko naman baka kanya yun so i didn't mind, but then i was near my drop off and i still didn't get my change so i called out to the driver again and asked for it. the driver looked at me through the rearview mirror, puzzled, but started to sort his coins then suddenly the guy beside me gave me the change he was holding.

ABA! akin pala talaga yun!

nainis ako paakyat sa overpass, and all i could think about was, may mga tao pala talagang gugulangan ka kahit parang hindi naman worth the trouble. i mean, that was php14.50 -- less than a burger he would've wanted to buy for his date that night -- though it would've been enough for the return trip home for the two of them...but hey! i barely have loose change for myself after computing all my expenses, so i really needed that money, too. pang-almusal ko rin yun (pandesal at 3-in-1) noh!

at hindi kasali sa issue na magkaiba kami ng social status dahil para sa akin, pare-pareho tayong lahat (by "lahat" i mean all those who make an honest living) pagdating sa pagkayod. sure, some get paid more and some get paid less than others, but we all have necessities and responsibilities attached to that financial state which may make a store manager no richer than a taho vendor.

pagbaba ko ng overpass papunta sa kotse ko, i sighed. hay naku. kelan pa ba talaga uunlad ang pilipinas kung nagdadayaan tayo?