I am not a party person. I personally don’t like clubs, loud music or rave parties. My idea of a party would be more subdued like those of the Victorian era. But when I was invited to witness Bigg’s Illumination – well, how can I say no?
The title makes you think of some Third World religious stuff (trust me to associate Illumination with Illuminati) but it’s actually an innocent and rather daring event by a homegrown brand in Naga.
Bigg’s Diner, now on its 32nd year has been known as a retro place – a resto where you go to eat and experience a 60s – 80s throwback. But recently they’ve been updating their game to still have that retro touch that made them famous while remaining relevant to their target market – the millenials.
According to CEO Carlo Buenaflor, Biggs Illumination is their attempt at connecting to the younger generation.
Biggs Illumination is a neon rave party. The dance floor is pitch black and only blacklights illuminate the scene. Wear white or neon colors and you stand out. Wear black and you’re hidden. Flourescent make up is available for anyone who wishes to add a hint of neon color to their garb.
DJs from Metro Manila were invited to share their beat and get the young Naga populace grooving to a beat. Of course, cocktails and beer were available in makeshift bars around the dance floor which was in a roof deck of a commercial building in Naga’s gimmick district.
I laud Bigg’s attempt to stage a first-of-its-kind event in Naga. Bigg’s has always been a game changer pioneering events the city has yet seen. Looking around the venue, it felt as if I haven’t left Manila at all. However, a look at the crowd validated that I’m still at a provincial city.
In Manila, it’s normal for people to start hitting the dance floor the moment they set their foot in. Those milling about have beer cups in their hands and before long will be out in the dance floor. In Naga, the crowd is more reserved. There was an atmosphere of feeling each other out. The crowd did not immediately take to the dance floor and it was a long time before anyone started to dance.
Gates opened at 6pm and I arrived at 9pm to a mellow crowd. I was expecting the party to be in full swing by then. Even when I temporarily left at around 10pm, the crowd had only started to thicken but nobody was really dancing yet. It was around midnight, after the Tower Burger Challenge that the real party began. It seems they were still waiting for the program to start not knowing that in raves like these, it’s a spontaneous event. Dance til you drop is the theme.
But despite the slow start, it’s still a great event for Naga. As a friend said, expose Naga to events like these and soon enough they will get the hang of it. And from the looks of it, Bigg’s is definitely the brand to do just that.
Flags around the city flew half mast to honor this great man. Yellow ribbons were tied around poles, streetlamps, gates, fences — almost everywhere. Naga was a sea of yellow. Photo by Macky Garcera.
For the past 2 weeks, Naga City has been adorned left and right with yellow ribbons and countless streamers & banners all in honor of one man – the man who made it possible to live in Naga prosperously, safely and contentedly. Never have businesses willingly spent a portion of their hard earned profit to pay homage to a politician. After all, politicians have the reputation of being shrewd businessmen who are also after profit of their own. Now this is something not all hard-working businessmen appreciates especially when it involves turning some of their revenues into that politician’s gain.
Various private entities hung banners outside their establishments to convey their deep gratitude for what he has done. Photos by Macky Garcera.
But that is not the case for the Nagueño businessmen and Naga’s Mayor, Jesse Robredo. Mayor Jess respected the businessmen’s plight to earn decent money. He made it possible for businesses to thrive in the city legally and profitably. In return, businessmen respected his wits and principles. They respected his character and his decency that he was not in the position for personal gain but he was there for genuine service. And so he gained their trust.
Various messages, whether in tarpaulins or cheese cloths, lined the city streets. During his wake in the Basilica grounds, these tarps were gathered and they filled up the entire place. Photo by Macky Garcera.
And when he left, businesses didn’t think twice in paying him tribute the only way they can – by displaying banner after banner, streamer after streamer, thanking him for his selfless dedication and honest work. The guy who shied away from traditional Welcome Home or Happy Fiesta banners that most politicians succumb to was given in his return home countless banners displayed in every corner and establishment. Mayor Jess didn’t want to spend the taxpayer’s money in privileges he can do without. He didn’t like to announce his homecoming, his greetings, his message or whatsoever in banners because he believed that the money to be spent for that can be spent in other more productive ways.
Some business tried to infuse their brands into their tarps but nonetheless carried the same messages of love and deep gratitude. Photos by Macky Garcera.
So in his honor, just this one time, businesses gave him what he withdrew from himself. Some hung small banners; some made really huge ones the size of standard billboards. Some dedicated entire parking spaces in his honor.
Others were more creative with their tributes – creating permanent graffiti in their store decors or creating message photowalls for people to leave their messages for him. Whatever medium they used, the practice around Naga City was the same. Businesses – big and small – paid their hero their last respects.
Business establishments were not the only ones who honored him in this way. He also touched many private schools who also accorded him the same honor. Some even made honorary trips to his wake – from elementary students who only know him as their all too famous alumnus to college students who stayed up all night and even made a vigil walk for him.
Schools, volunteer organizations, religious institutions, homeowners associations all clamored to pay their tributes. Photos by Macky Garcera.
Jesse Robredo was a well-loved man. It was evident in the city of Naga. He pleased not just private institutions but public agencies as well. He knew how to balance the private and public interests. And he knew how to prioritize the poor without sacrificing the businessman’s private interests. He was one 0f a kind.
Government agencies paid their respects as well. Photos by Macky Garcera.He was especially near to the hearts of the poor and the physically challenged. Photos by Macky Garcera.Some even paid him anonymous tributes. Others welcomed him back to the city he belonged, loved and served. Photos by Macky Garcera.
During the vigil before he was found, during the wake before his funeral and during his funeral, people from all walks of life were there. Telling personal stories of how Jesse has helped them. Crying their hearts out for the loss they felt. Giving whatever they can give – from free food to free shirt printing for the people who trooped to see him one last time.
Free shirt printing was available from early morning till late at night in various points in the city. A man even said that he was willing to print as many shirts as he can so long as he has paint. This is his way of saying thanks to Jess who helped him establish his small shirt printing business in the city market which enabled him to send his kids to school. (Jess did not ban sidewalk vendors. Instead, he introduced regulated vending in the city.) Photos by Macky Garcera.
He was available to everyone. Everyone could talk to him. Everyone had their own personal moments with him. And so, for them, he was a man gone to soon. He was Naga’s Golden Boy – the bearer of hope, the beacon of light. And his passing will leave a dent in every Nagueños heart.
Jesse is dead. He is gone. That is the harsh reality of things. He was gone too soon. Naga will feel his loss more than anything else. And not just in the upcoming Penafrancia Fiesta where he won’t be joining the voyadores. He will also be missed in the upcoming elections as Naga starts to feel the dread of what will happen to his legacy.
When he left, it wasn’t clear to whom he passed his baton to. We hoped he will somehow be our leader for a longer time. We had faith in his reforms in the national government. We saw him as a beacon of light – a shred of hope in the hopeless Philippine political situation.
Yet now, we can only pray that the current political line up of Naga will follow through Jesse’s legacy. We can hope. But what if they don’t? Already, “epal” tarpaulins are on the streets. And a lot more similar messages. Already we know of vultures waiting in the fringes for the right time to swoop down and get their spoils. It seems they saw their opening now with Jesse gone.
Do we need a constant reminder who he is?
The real dread has just begun. Perhaps it’s not as clear now since we are all wrapped up in grief and in strangled cries of continuing the legacy he left. But to what will this amount to when 2013 rolls in? When the vultures begin their descent? When political ambition overpowers selfless public service?
Yes, Jesse set an example. He showed leading a town to prosperity was possible without resorting to traditional politics. Yet he was able to do so because he was not greedy for either power or riches. He was not after his own personal ambitions. He was after genuine service to the people. He really was there to serve. Can we say the same to those in power we have now? Honestly, I doubt it. I’ve had my close encounters with them and none came close to what Jesse would have done had he been alive and in the same situation.
Do not blame me for the bitter tone in the middle of everyone’s sweet memory. I am but basing my opinions on experience. I fear for my city just as I’ve always feared for my country. I can’t help the skepticism that flows through me now.
And who paid for this truck? Wasn’t it tax payers’ money?
Yet I dare hope. I take a step of courage as I write this, hoping it springs some sense into our public servants. I try to be brave as I seek to call out the glaring inconsistencies of public servants’ practices with the oath they swore and the legacy they vow to continue. I pledge to remain vigilant in observing their actions.
For me, hope is no longer enough. I’ve hoped for such a long time. Now is the time for action. Jesse may be gone but he set the bar and example for everyone. And if I have to suffer dire consequences for my vigilance, then I’m afraid democracy would have failed us and Jesse’s memory would have been nullified.
Of all the greetings for Sec. Jess I saw around the city, it was only in this tarp that the name of an individual appeared.
It’s seldom anyone witnesses a momentous occasion that is bound to go down the annals of history. Yesterday, I witnessed just that – a sight like no other. An event that I can tell my grand kids over and over again. It was not an entirely celebratory occasion. It was a death after all. But it was a legendary death.
Black and Yellow Ribbons were tied on trees, posts and fences as tribute symbols to a great man.
When it was declared that Jesse Robredo was to be given a state funeral, at first, I did not understand what it was. I knew it to be some pompous funeral rites to be held in honor of great men. And indeed it was befitting Mayor Jess (as we call him) since in our eyes and our hearts, he probably was the greatest man to grace this planet. We all love him. How can we not? But the gravity of how huge or important the occasion was lost to me.
At first I thought this was the first time the country will hold a state funeral in the longest time. But upon further research, I learned that the last state funeral actually happened just last July 4, 2012. This was for a National Scientist, Perla Santos-Ocampo. National Scientists and National Artists by virtue of law have the right to be given a state funeral. Apart from them, heads of state (president, vice-president, senate president and speaker of the house) are also entitled to state funerals. Diosdado Macapagal was the last president given a state funeral which happened on April 1997. But does any of us remember what happened during those state funerals? Frankly, I don’t. I was still a kid in 1997 and the state funeral last July 2012 was probably not given much attention by the media (which is sad because she was a great scientist).
Despite the blistering sun, the Basilica grounds were packed with people, paying homage to their great leader.
And so, it was not until yesterday, while under the blistering sun; amid the grief and sorrow that plagued the collective hearts of us Nagueños, I saw just how pompous the rites were. After the usual mass was said and the priest’s moving homily was given, came the eulogies delivered by Atty. Leni and Pres. Noynoy. But before the eulogies, Mayor Jess was awarded the Legion of Honor, the highest award the President can give without approval from Congress. The medal was really huge. And it was such an honor for the entire Naga to have our beloved mayor awarded with such.
After the eulogies, the rites were performed. Fancy dressed military personnel paraded in the space in front of Basilica. When the casket was brought out, the Philippine National Anthem was played amid 19- gun salutes performed in nearby Eternal Gardens. It was a sight and sound to behold. Although I did not follow the procession to the crematorium, I later watched replays in TV of how the rites, as pompous as ever, were carried out in front of the crematorium. Each step – each process – was a tribute to the greatness of Jesse Robredo. Such pomp was never really synonymous with the simple man. As to Atty. Leni’s words, if Jess was alive, he would say that everything was too much. But just this last time, we all want to give him the highest form of honor we all can.
In my mind, I can’t help but think, how even in death, he brought prestige to our humble city. Our city, who was once riddled with various woes and problems typical of 3rd class cities. Our city who thru him has earned various recognition for matters that has helped each one of us progress into the kind of citizens we are now. Mayor Jess, in his true fashion, served us to the very end. With his death, he brought national attention to Naga City. Even USec. Manolo Quezon said in a tweet, that for yesterday, Naga was the capital of the country. Major media networks flew in their top anchors and reporters to cover the events. Dignitaries and VIPs graced our streets. The world saw what kind of a city Naga truly was.
Whereas before, my friends from Manila would have a hard time deciding where Naga was, or what Naga looked like, now, everyone in the country, even abroad, knows of this humble, land-locked city existing as a living testimony to the possibility of good governance; the possibility that honest public servants exist amid the sea of corrupt traditional political dynasties.
Policemen line up the paths to guide people where to go. Order was ensured during the entire funeral. I overheard some policemen remarked how Nagueños were very disciplined.
Mayor Jess, even in his death, gave us great honor, for which we are grateful for. In his death, he brought the country’s – and the world’s – eyes to our doorsteps. He showed the entire nation that progress is possible if only public servants would become true servants and citizens would become active constituents. Mayor Jess showed how democracy should really be played out – where the leaders craft solutions and where the constituents participate actively not just in the implementation but in the crafting of such solutions. Where leaders can impose but constituents are welcome to debate and argue with their impositions. Where such discussions are held in a civil manner, not in the streets as most often portrayed by the media as the only means for citizens to air out their sentiments over certain issues.
Much laud and praise have been accorded this great man. Stories, both from ordinary citizens and from well-versed writers, have been told over and over again. Those are just but a taste, a glimpse, of how truly great he was and how much impact he has made in all our lives. Not just in the present, but in the future as well. Naga City, hasn’t been accorded this much honor, this much publicity, this much praise, as it has been given now. And we all owe it to him, our faithful and dedicated Mayor Jess who even in death, served us well.
After such a long time, we finally have a long weekend holiday. And for someone who’s working, long holidays are a much welcome respite even if admittedly, we would have to do some work during the time period. Yet I still welcome the pressure-free & stress-free 4 days.
Yet what should have been a blissful holiday has turned into a tension-filled waiting game for Naga City – and the whole nation for that matter. Saturday afternoon, I received a text from a friend that DILG Sec. Jesse Robredo’s plane crashed in the waters of Masbate. I checked the news and true enough, it really happened. Then the waiting game began.
It was horrendous. This game of not knowing what would happen next. After that fateful crash, came rescue efforts and news casts clamor to be the first to report what was happening. There was even a false alarm that he was found which many believed. But after checking with close sources to the family, I knew that the worst was not yet over.
I am not here to talk about what the public already knows. Every second, social media updates us on how the rescue efforts are coming along. It’s all that the news contain now – the President is personally leading the rescue efforts – what could be more newsworthy than that? Even the typhoon threatening the northern provinces receive much less airtime than what is happening now at Masbate, at the Robredo’s residence and at prayer vigils in Manila.
Rather, I am here to narrate how kind a man Robredo was is. (I refuse to talk to him in the past tense.) I am in the same batch as his eldest child, Aika. She became my classmate back in Grade 4 and for a time being, when the entire family went to the US, she became my close friend through letters we constantly sent each other. It was there I caught a glimpse of the humble life they lead.
Yes, they were part of the high society of Naga City – I guess all politicians in high places are. But never did they make anyone feel like they were elite and you were beneath them. They embodied the true meaning of public servant – someone who serves the public first and put them above themselves.
My mom tells me that when she arrived in Naga it was a very sleepy town. It was a far cry from the city it is now – and indeed I recall how backwards it was back then. But under Robredo’s guidance and leadership, it bloomed to the city it is now. It now has so much potential that I was encouraged to go back and live here; starting my career here – a feat that would have been impossible if Naga has remained the backward city that it was before.
Under Robredo’s leadership, my faith in good governance returned. It was he who started transparency in the city government – where the public can easily access records and see how project biddings went so that we knew what transpired in all projects and were assured there was no corruption involved. With Robredo, the faith of the people returned to the government. Good governance was possible. And so he won election after election until his term expired. Then he would rest, run again, and win. He would have continued on becoming mayor if not for the offer of PNoy to be the DILG Secretary.
Robredo has no ambition for greater power. He could have easily became congressman, senator and climb up the political ladder. But that was not his intention in becoming a politician. His intent was to transform Naga and show the entire country that it was possible to become a progressive nation. Naga City is a testament to that.
Yet he is the only politician I know who doesn’t flaunt his projects. Not once did I see a waiting shed, or any other government project with his name etched on it. He didn’t preserve power by reminding people he erected this and that. He preserved power because he remained true to his oath of serving the people. And the people saw his sincerity. He is their champion.
Photo Credit: Faith In Numbers by Wormulus (deviantart)
This is not a post about the many intricate mysteries of spirituality. Rather it is a post about the mysteries people may associate to the way I practice my faith.
I have ceased labeling myself with a particular religious denomination. I grew up in a Catholic environment and became Born Again when I was in college. Now I am back in my predominantly Catholic environment trying to balance my new found beliefs as a Born Again and a good testimony to my Catholic social circle.
I have thus labeled myself as having a relationship and not a religion. For indeed, my faith is built more on the relationship I have with my Maker than religion which I believe is very limited and bounded by the rites of tradition, rituals and cultures.
But to most who do not understand, they must remain completely baffled at how I profess my faith. Take for instance today wherein our office is celebrating the Pagsungko ni Ina. It is an event wherein the image of the Lady of Peñafrancia visits our office annually and people hold vigils throughout the day. There’s a mass and the image is fetched and brought back through a procession to her shrine, which thankfully, is nearby.
However, my relationship is with Jesus. Not with Mary. And so I have since then stopped praying to her and worshiping her. For me, there is only One to be worshiped and that is Christ. God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit – One God in three forms. Saints and even Mary do not possess the characteristics of God for me to give them my prayers and worship.
And so, years of education and even serving as a student leader of a Mary organization is discarded, for I now no longer believe in Mary as a worship entity.
And thus explains why me, who attends Holy Mass every now and then, who receives communion then and now, refuse to participate in Mary glorifying activities.
Does this shed some light to my albeit mysterious faith?
Sometimes I wonder if there is a nobler reason why I chose to work in Bicol despite having been educated in Manila. A lot of people who’ve learned I studied in UP would ask me why I went back to Bicol to work. Their faces are lined with disbelief at what they think is a waste of education and opportunities on my part.
I would usually answer this people the most basic reason why I left Manila – I am sick and tired of living there. I have no intentions of facing the Manila rush hour traffic, of cramming myself in the sardine-pack railways just to get to work or of subjecting myself to the daily air and noise pollution of the Metro. For me the laid-back life of the province – the apparent ease of travel and the pristine atmosphere – outweighs far more the several thousand pesos difference in salary of an urban and rural job. This is my initial and heard of answer.
Naga City Public Market (source: www.naga.gov.ph)
My unheard of answer is one which might be bordering into the mean side. Most people who feign indignation at my by-passing opportunities of a Manila job are people who had never experienced life in Manila. To them, success equates living and working in the nation’s capital. They think highly of those who have been to Manila – those who’ve studied and worked there. Yet they themselves have had no experience of the hardships and turmoils behind the apparent prestige. They have no idea what it entails to work and reside in Manila. They have no idea that in order to get to work in time, one has to wake up really early in order to be travelling two hours before the supposed shift starts – and that travel involves several transfers of modes of transportation, committed in an atmosphere of exagerrated noise and stiffling smog. Exagerrated? Manila yuppies living far from their workplaces would agree with me. Why not live near the workplace, you may ask. Compare the rate of living spaces near your work location, say Makati, and a little bit farther, say UP Diliman, and you’d rather risk the commute than let all your hard earned salary go to your landlady. But then we all have our own priorities.
So in short, I do not want to face any of those circumstances when I have a much more appealing alternative here in the province. My workplace, admittedly is two towns and a city away from where I live, and sometimes I do have to ride four modes of transportation just to get there but then I am not exposed to excessive noise and stiffling smog. And thanks to our shuttle, the transportation is made so much more easier. Also travelling to work amidst a highway bordered with rice fields makes the full splendor of the star-filled skies a treat to the eyes – something I know I would never be able to witness if I live and work in Manila.
Plaza Rizal
I’ve come to realize all this things way back when I made the seemingly abrupt decision to uproot my urban life in exchange for a rural one. Today, I came across an article that also brought to mind another reason I have considered, though not so seriously, as to why I decided to spend the first years of my yuppie life in Bicol.
That article is Ms. Carmen N. Pedrosa’s Sunday column in the Philippine Star (publised May 24, 2009) entitled Bicolanos ask: What now for greater autonomy? In it she confirmed what I’ve known since high school, that my hometown belongs to the poorest regions in the country. According to the article, 5M or more than 60% of the population barely manage a sustainable lifestyle. What I learned new though was the reason why.
I thought before that Bicol was poor because most of its work force goes out of the province and work in other more prestigious regions. Of course I cannot blame them because the work opportunities then in Bicol were really scarce. Economy was at a standstill and there seems to be no improvement or growth for any of the establishments in the area. Investors also seemed hard to get by. I believe I was already in middle elementary years when Jollibee opened and it was a long time after that before McDonalds opened. I’m 22 so you do the math when those fast food chains, which are said to be the indicators of development, came to Naga.
The First McDonald's in Naga
Yet Ms. Pedrosa’s article said that Bicol is indeed rich in resources, and by that standard alone, is a wealthy province. It afterall, powers the Luzon grid with electricity from the Tiwi and Bacon-Manito geothermal plants. Lamentable though is the fact that Bicolanos are charged some of the highest rates for electricity. Apparently the geothermal plants in Bicol feeds first the other parts of Luzon before servicing its local constituents and by that time, exorbitant rates are being charged already. Apparently, the public officials (here we go again) are not doing enough for the people they have vowed to serve.
Ms. Pedrosa and company went to Bicol to talk about Charter change to the constituents of Sorsogon. They were proposing the autonomy of Bicol. Based on what I understood, Bicol, under a changed constitution, can become an autonomous region, much like ARMM and CAR. Why the need for autonomy, I do not quite understand. Foreign to me still is the idea of federalism. I do know that federalism and autonomy somehow goes hand in hand but I am still at a lost how a federal region or state would indeed function. And again, the question of why? Yet amidst all this talk about federalism and autonomy, they realized that their group had to really hear out the sentiments of the people who were experiencing the poverty first-hand. The people who have more rights to demand what is it the region needs to alleviate poverty.
And I guess amidst all the replies they heard, the most poignat one came from the lady who prepared their food for them. This lady claimed that the best thing to do in the upcoming elections would be to boycott it, since she reasoned that why would she go through all the charade of elections when nothing really happens – we just go through the motions of the elections. We just change the faces in power but nothing really changes anywhere. I guess she has a point although admittedly I must say it is a bit flawed.
Indeed it is true that with the country’s history in bad politics and political reforms, the tendency to get jaded with elections and promise of national reformation is quite rampant. I mean we cannot really blame anyone but the officials who year in year out makes us hope in their empty promises. But then we must still realize that the capacity to change this nation still lies in our hands. If we would all stop believing that the country has a potencial to rise above its current state of despair, then in the end the losers will be just ourselves and our future generation. I say “our” so we could own this coming generation since they would consist our kids and grandkids.
As pathetic as the situation must be, we must still do our best to change it, in whatever ways we can. No matter if we sometimes doubt if the little things we do indeed has any impact to our country. These little things like simply following a NO LITTERING or NO PARKING sign, or crossing the street in the designated place, or waiting for a ride in the apportioned area – seemingly insignificant laws that everyone seems to be breaking without any penalty – if we do them even when no one seems to notice or we become the odd man out, would still carry a significant impact that may be at this point in time is still far fetched from the range of our consciousness.
I remember a favorite quote that runs like this:
When I was young I wanted to change the world.
As I grew older, I realized the world was too large to change so I decided to change my country.
When I got a little bit older, I realized it was hard to change my country so I decided to change my tow
When I grew older still, I realized I cannot change my town so I decided to change my family.
When I got older still I realized that I wasn’t able to change my family.
As I lay in my deathbed, I realized, if I had changed myself first, then I might have been able to change my family, then perhaps my town, then my country and eventually the world.
Bottomline is: change starts from within. If we want something to happen in our country, if we want the trapos to change their approach to public service, wouldn’t it be worhwhile if we examine our own backyard first? If we check our selves first and ascertain for sure that we are in no way similar to this trapos – albeit in a different plane and context.
So that before we poke at the speck in someone else’s eye, we first verify that there is no speck in our eye as well.
And by the way, I just want to mention that I am really proud of all the developments of Naga as a city, and Cam. Sur as a province. In the small time frame since the first Jollibee had been erected in the city of Naga up to the present time, Naga has become a top-rate city and Camarines Sur a favorite destination for tourists and investors a like. Kudos to ALL who made this possible – from the highest official to the humbles aide!
I remember a time when having Jollibee on a certain place or city would label that place or city “progressive” or “organized”. Now it seems that Jollibee is no longer the benchmark – the benchmark has now become SM. Having this gigantic mall on a certain location labels that place as “urbanized” and definitely “progressive”, if not “economically active”.
After several failed attempts, countless negotiations and speculations, SM City Naga officially opened last May 1, 2009. And this has been greeted by a storm – a literal weather storm. April 29 already saw Naga being ravaged by strong rains and turbulent winds – an uncommon feat during the mid-summer months. The weather worsened as May 1 drew nearer and came that fateful date, a tropical depression was already in the Bicol area of responsibility, several miles away from Naga City.
Yet what was amazing was that no amount of hard rains and violent winds could drive the throng of eager Bicolanos from flocking SM’s grand opening. I personally didn’t visit the mall, not being a mall junkie as some people are, but my brother went there and he reported that despite the hostile weather there were a lot of mall goers. I also learned from a workmate that when she visited SM with some friends, every eating outlet was literally overflowing with people – even Mister Donut, which already had numerous outlets in Naga even way before SM opened. And these other branches, I believe, never saw a crowd as much as half of the crowd that SM Mister Donut had that day.
This leads me to ponder then on the implications of SM to a local city’s economy and what it reflects on Filipino culture.
Having SM indicates an influx of investors to a certain locality. It opens up countless job oppurtunities for the locals thus definitely improving lives and alleviating economic depression. Yet the downside is that local business might suffer from the competition SM presents. This was one of the major dissentions regarding the opening of an SM branch in Naga. Local malls like LCC and Robertson feared that SM might take away all their customers. No wonder that the days spanning the pre- and post-opening days of SM were met with huge sales from both local malls. The sad thing though is that I believe LCC and Robertson would still have a fighting chance with SM. I mean in Metro Manila, SM co-exists side-by-side with Robinsons and Ayala Malls. The key I believe is to ensure customer loyalty through improved services. Yet when we observe the looks of this two local malls, they really don’t have the customer service or the mall aesthetics to compete with SM. And without attracting paying customers, then investors are also detracted from investing in these malls. Already I heard a rumor that a major store in LCC will officially move to SM once its lease contract with LCC expires. If that store closes, it would dramatically decrease customer influx in LCC since that store not just sells products but caters to customer service of a certain company.
I guess time will tell how this local malls would fare with SM. If you’re a Naganueño you must be wondering why I didn’t mention E-mall as an example. I believe E-mall’s location is very strategic and this is its advantage in the game of mall domination. ☺
I must admit though that I am utmostly curious as to what SM City Naga look like. I’ve been to most SM malls in Metro Manila and although not a mall addict (I rarely visit the malls in Manila), I am also craving to visit SM Naga. And I believe that I would be doing so the first chance I got – in my upcoming day-off.
I overheard someone comment that he’ll visit SM once the fad dies down and people get tired of visiting the place. I don’t think that such a day would come. Not for a long, long time. Maybe never. Malls have their way of never decreasing rather increasing the number of customers – buying or not. And to their credit, even with SM around, LCC and Robertson might still have their customers. It’s just that their sales might not be as high as they hope.
Indeed, Naga City is a well-developed and globally competitive city now. I must say, kudos to the mayor and citizens of Naga!
