“One of my lamentable observations is how local eateries have been pushed out by the many fast food chains that now dot every major population center from the Ilocos to Mindanao”
Not knowing that April 10 would be declared a holiday, one of my daughters arranged for a weekend trip to Tali Beach in Nasugbu, Batangas for us to celebrate in advance the birthday of her daughter Stella which was on April 9.
Family and a few close friends of the celebrant went on a four-vehicle convoy that passed from SLEX to Carmona, thence Trece Martires to Gen. Trias, Naic and then Ternate to Nasugbu, passing through a tunnel on the Cavite-Batangas border.
Traffic was moderately heavy last Saturday in some portions of SLEX, Trece Martires, Gen. Trias and Naic, but a smooth flow along winding and scenic roads greeted us from Ternate to Tali, passing by Hamilo Coast with views of Corregidor and the famed Pico de Loro (parrot’s beak) mountaintop.
Cavite has become the most populous province in the country, yet less than 20 percent of its residents are “taal na Kabitenyo,” most being transferees from dense Metro Manila, with Cavite to the south and the first district of Laguna providing accessible havens.
The Manila to western Batangas passing through Aguinaldo Highway route was once a favorite drive in my VW beetle of college days, when traffic was hardly annoying, and even now-crowded Matabungkay in Lian was pristine.
Since I haven’t passed the lengthy Governor’s Drive that connects SLEX to western Cavite for a long time, I saw the ubiquitous shopping malls with the usual fast food chains dotting every major population center all the way to Naic.
Quite ubiquitous too are SM’s small groceries, called Alfamart, and newcomer Dali, which now compete with Taiwan’s 7-11, altogether making the Filipino “sari-sari” store on its way to complete extinction.
Sad. Even in the lowest of the value chain, the giants have killed the micro-entrepreneurs.
The view of the sea which brought gentle breezes to the balcony of our borrowed Tali Beach house, made for perfect conversation over wine and “pulutan.”
Topics from the rising cost of living which has affected everyone, the mega-rich excepted, to El Nino and climate change, to the future of the “saling-lahi”were grist for the mill.
Of course, everyone was asking this writer for “tea-leaves reading” on the recent Pulse Asia findings, which I would share with readers in due time.
Another topic was the conflict with China over the WPS, along with Taiwan, some of which we have written about in the last two columns.
I had to leave the following morning for a luncheon in the Silang, Cavite house of a former government official, passing this time by the more familiar Nasugbu-Tagaytay highway.
Again, aside from the Jollibees and the McDos, I noticed the proliferation of shopping malls, along with the now ever-present Alfamart and Dali.
I wondered if the cheap but nice “halo-halo” topped by hand-shaved ice in the Nasugbu poblacion was still around or whether it has been “killed” by Chowking’s machine-crushed ice, or a favorite “Pansit Balita” where we used to buy cooked food before going to the beach in our college days.
One of my lamentable observations is how local eateries have been pushed out by the many fast food chains that now dot every major population center from the Ilocos to Mindanao.
“Sayang,” when native cuisine has been replaced by so-so Western food, and third generation taste buds have changed.
Most LGUs call it “progress” when they have a huge mall, or Jollibees and McDonalds in their towns. Not in my book though.
In Nasugbu as in Tagaytay, the conversation over a table groaning with home-cooked food prepared by our gracious host and his wife was about the same issues that friends mused about the previous night, but for “juicy” incidents and prognoses that I am not free to write about, being shared in confidence.
Heavy with food, drink and the serious discussions in Tagaytay, I got back to Tali early evening and chose to play with the grandchildren in the pool, after their whole day in the beach.
Later last Sunday night, this time alone in the balcony as tired family members went to bed around eleven, I wondered about the kind of future our children and grandchildren would have in a world fraught with conflicts amid fast technological change.
How the world has changed, indeed.
Yet the country seems to be caught in deep freeze, where progress measured by increasing GDP has not improved the quality of life of the many who continue to exist in abject poverty.