sílang

GAWA NI POLENG

BATAY SA KWENTO NINA LOLO EMEN, LOLA LINDA, AT NG AMING KAPITBAHAYAN SA BAGONG SILANG.

PARA SA KLASE SA ANTHRO 173. AT SA LAHAT NG MGA BINAGSAK PARA ISILANG ANG LUNGSOD.

Habang nag-iisip ng konsepto at subject para sa project na ito, hindi naman talaga personal na kwento ng aming pamilya ang nais kong talakayin. Gusto ko lang makilala ang Bagong Silang higit pa sa kung ano na ang alam ko tungkol sa lugar na ito, at ipakilala din ito sa ibang tao.

Pero sa pagtatanong-tanong sa mga nakakatandang kapamilya at matatagal nang kapitbahay, napagtanto ko na ang kwento ng Bagong Silang ay kwento ng mga tao nito - kwento namin. Ang isang lugar, isang komunidad, ay nabibigyang buhay ng mga indibidwal na naglalagi dito. Sa mga kwentong ito - ng pag-lipat, pananatili, at paglisan - malalaman ang pag-usbong ng isang lugar higit pa bilang isang espasyo kundi isang pamayanan.

Hindi ko man lubos-lubos na makilala ang lugar na ito, ipapakikilala ko ito pa rin ito sayo batay sa kwento ng mga taong minamahal ito tulad ko.

Maligayang pagdating.

weusedtobethe biggestbarangay

In what used to be the biggest barangay in the Philippines, Bagong Silang (literally, New Born) in North Caloocan, I live as one of its 261,729 people as of the 2020 survey (Philippine Statistics Authority, 2020).

The land that the barangay occupied is a part of the land area of the Tala estate for the establishment of the Central Luzon Sanitarium but was not used and was then converted for urban and commercial settlement. During the final years of Marcos Sr’s presidency, it was further designated as a place of “new hope” for residents in urban poor communities of neighboring cities who were relocated in the area starting the 1970s under the urban beautification project of the regime (Jensen & Hapal, 2022).

As of April 2024, Bagong Silang has finally been divided into six separate barangays under Republic Act No. 11993 (cited in Laqui, 2024), which also rendered my “we live in the biggest barangay in the Philippines... no, not Barangay Ginebra San Miguel” jokes not only unfunny but also untrue.

Images from @JMAurelioINQ on X (Formerly Twitter)

(re)locatingnewhope inlakubeta

The “development” of all of Bagong Silang as a highly congested urban settlement can be traced from Ferdinand Marcos Sr’s general plan in beautifying urban centers thus having the need to segregate the urban “informal” settlers into the peripheries of the city it is “developing”. A remote talahiban in the outskirts of the metropolis, Bagong Silang was seen as a promising relocation area to house the already “violent” urban “squatters” of major communities in central cities (Jensen & Hapal, 2022). Arriving in a land with no water or electricity, the outsiders' perception of the place as dangerous and crime-ridden evolved, while people’s organizing flourished.

Before being the crowded Bagong Silang that is now, however, the earliest relocated residents of the area who were “bagsak” remember arriving at a massive land of open lots only marked with lone toilet bowls. In the initial years of people’s (re)settlement in Bagong Silang, the individual house toilets became important signifiers of properties for the residents. It is both a distinction for a new home to be built and a symbol of what was waiting for them with the promise of new hope in Bagong Silang to the point that the town earned the moniker La Kubeta or The Toilet (Jensen & Hapal, 2022).

Geographically and politically divided into “phases”, the distinction of Bagong Silang as an Urban space is intrinsically reflected in the history of its bagsak's settlements and relocations. Even throughout the War on Drugs and continuously today with rampant cases of criminality and violence, the barangays once comprising the biggest barangay in the Philippines is forever linked to the chronicle of urbanization from the country’s centers - an undeniable reminder of the people asserting their space and their rights from the peripheries to the core.

divided &contested

Image from Pogi Spotted Bagong SIlang Caloocan Facebook Page

How Bagong Silang developed and currently exists today can be understood through Setha Low’s (1996) descriptions of the divided and contested cities.

Before the influx of people, Bagong Silang is a militarized area due to the presence of members of the New People’s Army (NPA) in the highlands next to it. A decongested community formally born out of Marcos Sr's plan to divide its metropolitan center as it strains away the poor, ugly, and unhoused, Bagong Silang has been historically separated from what is the regime's conception of a beautiful global city. The land of new hope tas turned the town into a space of and for surplus people to live in the city albeit on the outskirts of it.

As resources were sparse and since some of the residents relocated were already organized in progressive urban poor associations prior to arriving to the area, Bagong Silang also became a potent area of contradictions and contestations among residents and officials through active community organizing in the barangay (Hapal, 2018). As such, the beginnings of Bagong Silang as a resettlement area in the proximity of the urbanized centers also reflect on the narratives of the contested city wherein residents actively fought for several demands that were linked with their way of life in their space.

binagsak/isinilang

My family was one of the families relocated or binagsak (literally, dropped) in Bagong Silang in 1989 after living as urban poor settlers in Obrero for years. My grandparents are originally from Sibuyan in Romblon who soon went to Manila to make a living, settling in a rental compound in Barrio Obrero by the 1960s where they had their children. By 1981, however, several houses in their neighborhood burnt down including theirs, prompting them to live in makeshift houses or barongbarong from what was left of their home with the permission of their tenant free of charge. It was only in 1989 that they were asked to leave, and with the help of a neighbor working in the National Housing Authority, they were given the option of being relocated in either Cavite or Caloocan. My grandparents then decided to settle in available lots in Bagong Silang - seeing that it is closer and that it technically is still a part of the city.

From there they cultivated themselves a family and a community, in Phase 9.

mgahalamanatalagang hayopniloloemen

Outside of the busy concrete jungles of Obrero in Manila and despite being away from the rural landscapes of Sibuyan in Romblon, Phase 9 in Bagong Silang - as the talahiban that it once was - became a suitable space for my Lolo Emen to plant his fruits and vegetables. Still working in Manila as a milk vendor who would travel by his pedicab all the way from Bagong Silang, he bought his seedlings in Quiapo and got some from friends and customers.

As one of the first residents in the block and in Phase 9 as a whole, Lolo Emen and Lola Linda raised their family both through opportunities from the (nearby) metropolitan area and the fertile land of Bagong Silang. Traversing these spaces, both near and far, have made it possible for them to do work for urban companies and cultivate goods through farming and raising pigs and chickens. This reflects on the liminal between the rural and urban as a sub-urban that Bagong Silang used to occupy, and that while some of its relocated residents understandingly never found the footing to foster a life there with its limited opportunities, my family gladly did.

Growing up in a more “developed” Bagong Silang in the 2000s, I still had the chance to experience playing with chickens in the backyard, seeing my Lolo Emen slaughter our pigs for family events, and pick up the fruits of Mango, Kapok, Santol, and Guava trees.

kaliwa,kanan,andthemental

Bagong Silang (and its barangays) are divided into smaller "phases" classified informally into two primary sections - Kaliwa and Kanan, which are also the main signifiers in which Jeepney to ride when going to the district. Originally, there is only one way to reach Bagong Silang and that is through the route that is now Kanan.

In Kanan was the central business area of Bagong Silang, Phase 1, where key government offices are also located. For the longest time, electricity and water lines were only available in this area. It was only in the 1990s that electric and water systems became available for other areas including in our community in Phase 9. By this time, roads were also paved in order for travellers to directly reach Kaliwa. Jeeps in Bagong Silang are now divided into two routes, Kaliwa and Kanan with the Camarin Extension of the National Center of Mental Health situated in the middle.

Such developments in the area also signified a rise in its population.

Images from Google Maps

movementandstatic inpathwalks

Bagong Silang’s land area, divided into “phases”, are comprised of smaller packages and blocks connected through a network of pathwalks. Community for a lot of residents in Bagong Silang is the collective of people living in these blocks usually of three to five pathwalks (Jensen et al., 2013), making these structures not just passage ways of movement but distinct areas of dwelling and community relationships.

The physical and social orientation of the pathwalks that cultivated intimacy among residents, a realized concept of communal intimacy (Jensen & Hapal, 2022), has unfortunately became instrumental in the bloody and widespread War on Drugs in the community - with neighborhood relationships affecting social order, state control under the local police, amidst its changing urban landscape.

Image by Jayneca Reyes in DIGNITY

thedrugwar’sarena

It was 2017. I was the same age as Kian delos Santos when he was killed in the drug war. Rodrigo Duterte’s militarized and fascist plans to address the drug problem in the country was at its height with bloodied bodies falling in streets across the country and people with names in drug watch lists surrendering to the police left and right. I have been living in the same town for 17 years.

Deaths not caused by natural causes were not new to us living in Bagong Silang. In fact, murders and other crimes were almost natural by how normalized it is for us. This has been going on for years. In our pathwalk alone, I can remember at least 2 crime-related deaths throughout my childhood - including one that happened directly in front of our house while I was asleep. Fraternities and other gangs are the usual suspects. Sumpaks, the usual cause.

And nobody would say anything in fear of retaliation.

So when bodies started falling victims during the drug war, I was not alarmed. It was expected with the high crime rate and prevalence of drug users, and despite being angry at the whole thing, it was not new. And everyone knew that.

The communal intimacy which made it possible for neighbors to share stories and handa every time there’s a family celebration has also laid the groundwork for silence to brew as fear seeps through the congested eskinitas when katoks would be heard throughout the neighborhood.

Images from RAPPLER

divided&contestedstill

Stuck in a decongested barangay during the pandemic as most lose their primary sources of living, residents of Bagong Silang braved long lines during aid distribution at the height of the pandemic. Physical distancing was rarely observed as police and barangay officials were not able to control in the influx of hungry and dissatisfied people (Cayabyab, 2020). Such case reflect on the ideas of the divided and contested cities yet again for Bagong Silang, as the socioeconomic divide between the people inside of the community itself became potent while the less fortunate attempt to take what they deserve.

Image from OneNews PH

nagbabagongsilang

No longer the talahiban that it once was, the many barangays of Bagong Silang now house residential houses along with businesses and commercial establishments. Houses, then only marked with lone toilet bowls, are now of varying sizes and heights. Jollibee branches are established left and right, as 7/11 stores now stand side by side with sari-sari stores. Coffee shops are next to vape shops open 24/7. Basketball courts are found per block.

Students are given the choice to study in nearby public and private schools. Barangay health centers and private clinics are open and available in various areas. The Santo Nino Church which used to be the lone religious establishment in the area, older than most resident’s dwelling, still stand strong next to new religious institutions from varied beliefs.

It is inevitable for places to change as people come and go and stay.

With the current influx of gentrified private spaces in Bagong Silang, I remain hopeful that its people will still reclaim the space that they birthed and the community they fostered. Carrying on with the ingenuity, optimism, and rage of the barangay’s first bagsaks, Bagong Silang will stay as a land of new hope for its people building a center in the peripheries and a testament to the chaos and other sociopolitical and geographic implications of urbanization.

Magbabago ang ‘Silang’ ngunit patuloy na magbibigay ito ng oportunidad sa sinuman at anumang isisilang dito.

bibliography

Cayabyab, M. J. (2020). What Physical Distancing? Residents Of Country’s Biggest Barangay Bewail Condition In Getting Aid. OneNewsPH. Retrieved from https://www.onenews.ph/articles/what-physical-distancing-residents-of-countrys-biggest-barangay-bewail-condition-in-getting-aid.

Hapal, K. F. (2018). Participation as Subscriptions: Re-examining participatory development practices. Philippine Journal of Social Development 10, 77-120.

Jensen, S., et al. (2013). Violence in Bagong Silang: A research report prepared in collaboration between DIGNITY and Balay. Copenhagen: Danish Institute Against Torture.

Jensen, S. & Hapal, K. (2022). Communal intimacy and the violence of politics. Cornell University Press.

Laqui, I. (2024). Bagong Silang in Caloocan City split into 6 barangays. Philstar.com. Retrieved from https://www.philstar.com/headlines/2024/04/05/2345564/bagong-silangcaloocan-city-split-6-barangays.

Low, S. M. (1996). The Anthropology of Cities: Imagining and Theorizing the City. Annual Review of Anthropology, 25, 383–409. http://www.jstor.org/stable/2155832

Philippine Statistics Authority (2020). Barangay 176. Statistical Classification Systems. Retrieved from https://psa.gov.ph/classification/psgc/brgydetail/1380100176

Bagong Silang. From Communal intimacy and the violence of politics (p. 21), by S. Jensen & K. Hapal, 2022, Cornell University Press. Copyright 2022 by Cornell University.

“You don't get to hate San Francisco. You don't get to hate it unless you love it.”

Joe Talbot, The Last Black Man in San Francisco (2019)

Si Poleng ay isang estudyante ng BA Anthropology sa UP Diliman na naghahangad na makapagtapos na ngayong semestre. Ipinangak sa Quezon City, siya ay lumaki sa pangangalaga ng kanyang Lolo at Lola sa kanilang bahay sa Bagong Silang sa Caloocan City. Hilig nyang gawin sa kanilang lugar ang maglakad-lakad at maghanap ng mga bagong ukayan.

Ang zine na ito ay kanyang love letter sa kanyang barangay.

pagdating.