Rumblings

Since Thursday night, you could tell that there were bad things happening. There were whispers of a coup all week, and it was obviously going to come to a head during this year’s EDSA celebrations.
Even so, I had to go to work extra early on Friday, so I was on the road just after 6AM. By 7:30 AM I was at the office and getting set for the big presentation we had been prepping for all week at the Salt Mines.
The good news is that the presentation went very well. The bad news was that we learned that President GMA had declared a ‘State of Emergency’ by the time we were finished. Despite it all, we all leisurely headed for Greenbelt to have a celebratory lunch and enjoy the quasi-fiesta like atmosphere of a day full of rallies, riot police, coup paranoia and commuting nightmares.
The funny thing about a coup here in the RP is how people react. Often, masses of people gather to watch the soldiers duke it out, no matter the danger getting hit by a stray bullet or shrapnel. This time though there was little to worry about in terms of fighting- apparently the coup had been quashed before it had even begun. Still there was uncertainty and you could tell as everyone who had a mobile phone was texting away like crazy or calling to console their friend or family waiting on the other end of the line. Me? I was worried about how I was going to get home quickly enough to avoid the inevitable crush and gridlock that would clamp down on Ayala Avenue.
So as fast as I could (after lunch and some window-shopping), I hied off to the MRT station and took an extremely crowded train to Cubao and home.

It’s a bit with irony that Friday was the same day that the WWE wrestlers came to Manila, the same time that a political rumble started off in the country. What a great way to welcome the world-famous brawlers. Sigh.

Anyway, I’ll probably be staying home over the weekend thanks to the uncertain climate. Gives me a bit of opportunity to get some rest, do some comic pages and maybe catch up on some reading. Hey, at least that’s one bright side to all this coup nonsense.