Pihak Suba

Pihak Suba. Ballpoint pen on Moleskine ruled notebook. Click on image for enlarged view.

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The sun had barely risen and already the people of Pihak Suba from the adults to the children, were up. Pihak Suba in Ilonggo means "The Other Side of the River". I always considered this place very mysterious. Mother forbade us to go there and the only time I disobeyed her was the time one of the twins drowned. Even then, we did not cross the bridge. The accident happened downriver near the delta where the muck from the city drainage emptied. The night the city burned, my parents gathered my sisters and brothers, all eight of us. They instructed us to wait by the river banks, and only to cross the bridge when the fire was visible. We never did, in fact we never left the house because the fire stopped two blocks from our house.

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Pihak Suba was a village of fishermen. The men had dark skin and gaunt faces. When my Mother needed help in the house, she sent word to my aunt who sent word to a couple of women who lived in Pihak Suba. Our laundrywoman, Mary lived in Pihak Suba. She looked mean and when Mother was not looking and my older sisters were not around, Mary pinched us. I don't know why she thought she could pinch me and my younger sister but since Mother left us in her watch sometimes, I thought we had to obey her. My younger sister and I would hide up in the "attic" which was actually an overhead closet where she stored the linens and extra clothes. Mary always brought along her little daughter whose skin was white as bond paper. Sooner rather than later we told our Mother about Mary pinching us and Mother was not pleased at all. We saw her talking to Mary who looked defiant and was telling lies. When she left, my younger sister and I ran up to the verandah and when Mary walked away, we stuck out our tongues at her and made horn gestures with our fingers.

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In the river bank area we called "Rodriguez Baybay" (pronounced bye-bye, meaning river) was a cluster of very modest homes. It almost had a slum-like atmosphere because houses were erected without any pattern or consideration for avenues or walkways. There were no roads, just zigzag paths or maze-like alleys, except it was not filthy. The people who lived there swept the bare grounds with broomsticks made of bundled ribs of the coconut leaves. They also had children who went to college who looked very neat in pressed skirts or pants and long-sleeved starched white blouses.

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During the high tide, the water flowed beneath the floors of the elevated houses. Some houses were on stilts and others propped up just a few inches from the highest tide level. One day we visited my uncle, my father's older brother who lived in Baybay. I went to the river with my cousins but it looked so scary with the big rocks and the pounding waves. Mother warned me not to wade in the water because she said it was filthy. The bridge was just nearby and we climbed it and started walking towards the middle of the bridge. It was a very scary bridge. It was not very sturdy and the planks were made of bamboo trunks and they were not evenly lashed. I never crossed the bridge. Beyond the bridge were houses on stilts and coconut groves. There were fishponds everywhere and barnacles attached to the bamboo trunks that served as boundary posts. I heard they used the river to drown puppies and kittens that pet owners could not afford to care for and therefore thought of the act as a form of euthanasia.

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The irony of Pihak Suba and Rodriguez BayBay was the fact that the long streets Libertad Street, Lizares Avenue, Rodriguez Avenue and Alunan Avenue that led to these areas were lined with mansions, huge homes and estates belonging to the city's old rich families.

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