Intramuros in Sepia

The time that I came back to the Philippines from Viet Nam. I met Emman and Albert to visit Intramuros. We were classmates at Far Eastern University in Manila, so this place was not new to us. It has been part of our university days wherein we would meet here to practice performances or deliberate our projects. Most of the students who studied in Manila, particularly in the schools and colleges in the walled city could relate to us. If there is what you call high school life. For sure, we have good old memories of our university lives too. 

I remembered that I went here with my peers, She Rock, it was my group in college and most of us were women. We had our shoot for MTV productions. We shot it in Baluarte de San Diego. (Unfortunately, Emman, Albert, and I were not able to see it) It was free during that time and we had just discovered that place during our walk.

 

My childhood was memorable because of Intramuros. I remember visiting this place when I was young. It was part of my school's field trips and yes, it was numerous times. 

I went here with Emman again and another choirmate from FEU-IAS Chorale, (Ooopss, I forgot his name. I am older by more than a decade now. Pardon me.) It was too late, almost midnight. We were supposed to do night photography outside Manila Cathedral. But my manual camera fell off the tripod. It was too scary at that time but still showed the grandeur Manila vibe because of the lights and the old walls. I wished I could go back here at night and do the photography again. 

I would not mind becoming a tourist guide to visitors to Manila. Because of that, I became close with Vi, one of my closest friends from work. He was from Sultan Kudarat in Mindanao. Because of our similar interests, we decided to see Intramuros together. I realized at that time that, you will keep on finding different places and discoveries in Intramuros. It was also the start of our traveling stories. 

During my on-the-job training which was part of our curriculum, I was able to do an internship at PETA (Philippine Educational Theater Association). It was a non-profit theatrical organization and was known for its different performances. Prior to their home theater now that is located in New Manila, Quezon City, most of their performances before were inside Fort Santiago in Rajah Sulayman Theater. 

It was in 2003 when Wowie de Guzman became part of the show called, "The Bomb", it was part of the short plays written by Rene Villanueva. Maan and I were asked to be the P.A. of the last night's show. That was one of my magical experiences. How many people were able to be part of  PETA performances in the walled city at night flocked by theatrical Filipino celebrities?  As a theater/mass communication student it was my pride. I hope that this could happen again because this is Filipino culture that we should support and showcase to the world.