Cheap motels abound in Metro Manila, and they are thriving in popularity. I remember once entering one of those cheap motels in downtown Manila on the night of the Quiapo Fiesta in 2009. Virtually exhausted after following the procession of the Senyor Nazareno from morning through evening, I decided to try my luck and "check-in" for the night in one of the small-time motels in downtown.This motel was located in the second floor of a decrepit old building along Quezon Boulevard. From the sidewalk, a double swinging doors opened to a flight of stairs, on top of which was a small receiving area. A thin middle-aged Chinese man in a white sando was in the counter, and behind him was a collection of keys with room numbers printed on them. In a smattering of Tagalog, he asked me if I was going to stay “short time or overnight.” For the uninitiated, “short time” means one to three hours of stay. I answered "overnight". He told me the cost would be P200. I paid in cash and was ushered into my room by a teenage boy who also gave me a towel and a small piece of soap.
Entering this motel was a decision I would later regret with much shame. The room was grimy, and the bathroom stank. Scribbled on the walls were phone numbers of people offering sex. "Just call this number," one said, "and I’ll be knocking on your door in a few minutes." Here and there were scribbled lewd drawings of sex organs and sexual positions. During the night, I had difficulty getting to sleep. I could hear passionate moans from the adjoining rooms, and even some banging on the walls. I hurriedly dressed and took a taxi back home. I never entered a cheap motel since then.
Some of you may think that entering the motel all alone is very unusual, since a motel, in the Philippine context, is a place where people usually spend very private moments with the opposite sex. To say it bluntly, it meant satisfying one's earthly urges. Indeed, by checking in, I risked censure of my friends and colleagues if they found out. Yet I have always maintained that there are no sinful places, only sinful people. Motels cannot be sinners, in the same way that a prison cannot become a criminal.
Postwar travelers' lodgings
The very first Philippine motels(short for "motor hotel"), however, were not originally designed as places to have illicit sexual affairs. The first motels in the Philippines sprang up to meet the postwar shortage of lodgings for travelers. Immediately after the Second World War, ruined Manila had no hotels but a lot of lodgers, especially the American soldiers who traveled regularly from their camps to different destinations.To cope with the demand for lodgings, the first rooming houses were established in downtown Manila in 1945. Then, in 1946, the first authentic motel was established in Apelo St., in Pasay. This motel was a six-garage bungalow with air-conditioned units that came complete with toilets and bathrooms and hot and cold showers. The motel also served food for the G.I.s weary after a long journey from their camps. At P30 a day, the motel's rooms were cheap and always filled to capacity. Of course no G.I.s short of cash would have thought of staying in expensive Manila Hotel with only a few bucks in their pockets!
Then in the 1950s regular hotels began to be built in Manila. Offering better conveniences and services, these hotels were considered classier than motels. By this time, most of the G.I.s had already returned to the United States, and thus in the 1950s and 1960s, motels became superfluous. No longer were they as popular as before and their usefulness in the city had dwindled. The changing culture in Manila, however, saved the motels from oblivion. In the early 1950s, night clubs and bars began to be built in Manila, and many motels began offering cheap "short-time" rates, which were for one- to three-hour stays--to male clients who found instant sexual partners from the red light establishments.
Back then, it was considered highly improper if a man was seen entering a motel with a female companion. Thus, many couples entered motels a few minutes apart. Patrons also didn't want their identities known -- men pretended to read newspapers while entering motels and women wore dark shades and used abanicos to hide their faces from public view.
'Tira-han ng mag-syota'
The transformation of motels from simple lodging houses to private venues to conduct illicit sexual affairs became complete in the 1960s. A popular joke back then was a question of the difference between a hotel and a motel. The answer was "Ang hotel ay tirahan ng mag-asawa, samantalang ang motel ay tira-han ng mag-syota (Hotels are where married couples live, while motels are where boyfriends and girlfriends stay)."
The so-called "love hotels" were considered anathema by women civic groups in the 1960s. In particular, the Catholic Women’s League of Manila (CWL) filed a petition to then- Manila Mayor Antonio Villegas to close the motels because, they argued, the motels were increasingly becoming venues for illicit sexual affairs (Mayor Antonio Villegas was the author's late grandfather). The motel owners, primarily thought to be rich Chinese businessmen, fought back. They argued that closing the motels fringe on their right to operate legal business. There were no laws banning motels and especially banning people from entering motels!
Pressured from both sides (CWL and motel owners), Mayor Villegas reached a compromise. Although he did not order the closure of the motels, he nevertheless levied heavy taxes on the motel operators. In short, while he gave the motels a new lease for life, he made their existence difficult. Then at about this time came one of the most serious blows to the image of the motel: the rape in a motel of Antonieta Cabahug by Cesar Guy, a Chinese lumber magnate. It was perhaps one of the most sensational crimes of the decade, and Cabahug died as a result of the rape. Eventually Guy was sentenced to life imprisonment (he has since been released and is now a Christian preacher). From this time on, however, motels became associated not only with illicit affairs but with crimes, too.
Removing the tarnish
It was only in the late 1970s and the 1980s when motels began a serious effort to rebuild their tarnished image. Some of the high-end motels even began changing their names into vogue-sounding names like "Ritz and Waldorf," "Bermuda," "Victoria Court," "Town and Country" and "Capri". They also remodeled their interiors to provide a hotel-like ambiance -- spacious and wholesome lobbies, and themed rooms, offering patrons choices of Disneyland-painted rooms or, for the more adventurous lovers, jungle-themed suites . Some of the high-end rooms also offered private jacuzzi, water beds, and sound-proof walls, all of which, of course, cater to the more affluent clients.
At present, love motels in Metro Manila are as ubiquitous as the shopping malls -- you can find them everywhere. In the university belt alone, one could count more love hotels than there are universities, so the area could also have been termed the "Motel Belt" with none the wiser. In Quiapo’s Quezon Boulevard stretch for instance, I recently counted a dozen motels, not including the numerous cheaper, more dubious, no-signage motels that operate like boarding houses, located in the smaller inside streets.
The cheapest of motels sometimes masquerade as lodgings for travelers, although very few transients actually go there to slumber. Unlike motels in the past that were located in high-walled compounds for the utmost privacy, love motels nowadays operate more openly in large modern buildings that have been designed to have entrances and exits that lead to shopping malls, MRT train stations, and even call centers.
The inside of motel rooms tells something conspicuous about their very nature. One notices the absence of windows and the presence of dim lights. Some motel rooms even provide a swing hanging from the ceiling, in the middle of the bed. Some rooms are provided with cable television. What can be shocking to the uninitiated, though, is that these cable subscriptions include channels showing pornographic movies. Also, inside bedside bureau drawers one can find condoms in different fruit flavors.
Motel managers are very strict in following the concept of “short time”. Fifteen minutes before the “short time” lapses, occupants will be reminded that they need to get ready to vacate the room as the next customers are already waiting to occupy it. Such is the popularity of motels that there are not enough rooms for their numerous clients, and as such numerous love seats are provided in the lobbies for the lovers waiting for their turns.
These conditions suggest the nature of the relationships of people lodging in motels -- many times, they are after sex without the benefit of marriage. Since married couples usually have sexual intercourse at home, couples staying “short-time” in motels are generally thought to be engaging in: (1) Pre-marital sex (sex before matrimony) (2) Adultery/concubinage (i.e., a married woman having sex with a man not her husband, vice versa), and (3) Prostitution (sex trade).
Of the three, the last is the most flagrant and the most obvious. Prostitution, as the saying goes, is the world’s oldest profession. But in Metro Manila and in other big cities for that matter, prostitution has also become a thriving industry. One could count Manila, Cubao, Monumento, Pasay, Pasig, Quezon Avenue, as the places with the highest concentration of motels in the metro because of the thriving sex trade in these places. In all these places, prostitution is a 24-hour business. One only needs to walk at anytime of the day in certain streets and furtive offers will be made in exchange for money.
We are thus drawn to answer a very crucial question. Could the proliferation of motels in our midst be an indication of the moral degeneration of Filipinos? Or are Filipinos just beginning to experience a modern sexual revolution already experienced in Japan, the United States, Sweden, and many other countries?
Indeed, one cannot escape the conclusion that although many people consider motels as sinful places of fornication, illicit sex, and prostitution, their popularity reflects the general attitude of the Filipinos towards motels in particular and sex in general. Manilans in general are loathed to be seen entering motels. Nonetheless, the very popularity of these establishments only indicate that motels are a product of our culture-- and not the other way around.
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