The Looban which we are about to explore is an interior squatter neighborhood located along the banks of the Estero de Paco in Barangay Ducepec, in Paco, Manila. The houses are built along the river banks and extended up to three meters to the river. This means that half of the house is on solid ground and the other half is beneath the toxic river.
Most houses are very small, known locally as the Barong-barong. It is like a box structure made of different kinds of scavenged materials: plywood, cardboards, pieces of wood salvaged from the garbage dump site, flattened tin cans and rusted tin roofs. On top of the roofs can be found, invariably, vehicle tires or concrete blocks as a means of leverage in case of typhoons.
There is no definite shape of the houses. The architecture is not the main concern. The main concern is to provide each member of the family with enough sleeping space, which, unfortunately is not always enough. There are no rooms inside the houses. The one room that they have is used for dining and sleeping. There is no proper toilet within the houses. There is just a very small walled room called Kubeta where a small hole on the floor is opened directly to the river underneath. This serves as the toilet.
Most houses have barely any furnishings. It is not considered important to buy these luxuries. Food is the most important commodity that they buy with what little money they earn. As such there is also no electricity or clean water system as they cannot pay for these services. The electricity problem has been solved by a few enterprising men who managed to connect illegal wires to the electric post. These enterprising men were given 5 peso a day by each of the houses. But the illegal connection starts only at night as the Meralco (the power service provider), checks the wires at day.
The clean water is being fetch through an illegal connection to the water pipes. But a few neighbors who managed to get legal connections protested because they said that the stolen water was being charged to their account. These few with legal connections sell water by the Timba (bucket) for 2 pesos. All day, there are numerous timbas lining the faucet for clean water. It was a good business. Although there is also a Poso (deep well) where people can get water, but its water is not potable for drinking (only for washing clothes), so most buy potable water.
Access to the Looban is through a small opening of an unnamed street. People go in and out of the Looban through this very narrow passage. Sometimes, when there are numerous people going in or out at the same time, they have to walk sideways to make enough space for a walking passage.
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I have to say that photographing the living conditions inside these squatter dwellings has been the most difficult task I have yet done as a photojournalist. In a period of several weeks, I visited and revisited the Looban so as to immerse myself with the plight of the poor Filipinos living inside this squatter area. Many of the residents welcomed me even though I was alone and a complete stranger. Despite the warnings given to me by some people that life inside the slum could be dangerous to a stranger (indeed, one of the streets was named Street of No Return), I felt no hostility from the people living inside. If there was, I did not notice it. In fact, many of them were very friendly and accommodating, even allowing me inside their dwellings for interviews and taking photographs.
The men seemed to be very hospitable, too. As I walked along the narrow streets, I found some of them in drinking session and offered me a "shot". I always decline such generous offers and I'm glad they did not force me, because if they did, I would have to drink a shot. Seeing my camera, they willingly agreed to my offer to photograph their drinking session.
Life inside the slum area is hard. Really, it's hard to be poor. Most families have barely anything to eat, and their living conditions are deplorable. Some houses are like little boxes where rats, flies, cockroaches, and mosquitoes share a living space with the human beings.
This series has been a great learning experience for me, and I will never look at life the same way again.
Most houses are very small, known locally as the Barong-barong. It is like a box structure made of different kinds of scavenged materials: plywood, cardboards, pieces of wood salvaged from the garbage dump site, flattened tin cans and rusted tin roofs. On top of the roofs can be found, invariably, vehicle tires or concrete blocks as a means of leverage in case of typhoons.
There is no definite shape of the houses. The architecture is not the main concern. The main concern is to provide each member of the family with enough sleeping space, which, unfortunately is not always enough. There are no rooms inside the houses. The one room that they have is used for dining and sleeping. There is no proper toilet within the houses. There is just a very small walled room called Kubeta where a small hole on the floor is opened directly to the river underneath. This serves as the toilet.
Most houses have barely any furnishings. It is not considered important to buy these luxuries. Food is the most important commodity that they buy with what little money they earn. As such there is also no electricity or clean water system as they cannot pay for these services. The electricity problem has been solved by a few enterprising men who managed to connect illegal wires to the electric post. These enterprising men were given 5 peso a day by each of the houses. But the illegal connection starts only at night as the Meralco (the power service provider), checks the wires at day.
The clean water is being fetch through an illegal connection to the water pipes. But a few neighbors who managed to get legal connections protested because they said that the stolen water was being charged to their account. These few with legal connections sell water by the Timba (bucket) for 2 pesos. All day, there are numerous timbas lining the faucet for clean water. It was a good business. Although there is also a Poso (deep well) where people can get water, but its water is not potable for drinking (only for washing clothes), so most buy potable water.
Access to the Looban is through a small opening of an unnamed street. People go in and out of the Looban through this very narrow passage. Sometimes, when there are numerous people going in or out at the same time, they have to walk sideways to make enough space for a walking passage.
***
I have to say that photographing the living conditions inside these squatter dwellings has been the most difficult task I have yet done as a photojournalist. In a period of several weeks, I visited and revisited the Looban so as to immerse myself with the plight of the poor Filipinos living inside this squatter area. Many of the residents welcomed me even though I was alone and a complete stranger. Despite the warnings given to me by some people that life inside the slum could be dangerous to a stranger (indeed, one of the streets was named Street of No Return), I felt no hostility from the people living inside. If there was, I did not notice it. In fact, many of them were very friendly and accommodating, even allowing me inside their dwellings for interviews and taking photographs.
The men seemed to be very hospitable, too. As I walked along the narrow streets, I found some of them in drinking session and offered me a "shot". I always decline such generous offers and I'm glad they did not force me, because if they did, I would have to drink a shot. Seeing my camera, they willingly agreed to my offer to photograph their drinking session.
Life inside the slum area is hard. Really, it's hard to be poor. Most families have barely anything to eat, and their living conditions are deplorable. Some houses are like little boxes where rats, flies, cockroaches, and mosquitoes share a living space with the human beings.
This series has been a great learning experience for me, and I will never look at life the same way again.
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