MY SARISARI STORE

Plaza Miranda people.

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And if you meet a fellow photographer, make sure that you shoot faster than him ! ;-)

Plaza Miranda people.

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Political rallies.

Plaza Miranda in the heart of Quiapo district is also a popular site of political rallies. In August 21, 1971, while the Liberal Party held their Miting de Avance in the plaza, a bomb exploded, killing 8 and injuring almost 100 civilians.

Pres. Marcos blamed the communists for the bloody crime. Speaking for the Philippine Communist Party, its founder Jose Ma. Sison denied having anything to do with it and in fact condemned the bombing. Another suspect to emerge during the subsequent investigation was General Fabian Ver, head of Marcos’s Presidential Security Unit (PSU).

Marcos took advantage of the situation to arrest hundreds of suspected subversives from the ranks of students, workers and professionals. Many writers point to this incident as the catalyst and Marcos’ rationale for martial law eventually declared in 1972.

To this day, Plaza Miranda, is still a preferred place for demonstrations.

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The flower shops of Quiapo.

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The masseurs of Quiapo.

The skeptics might opt for a plain simple massage. This will cost you between 100 and 200 pesos for one hour of massage.

Quiapo's Faith Healers.

Most of those guys are now my friends. I deeply regret that my knowledge of Tagalog is so poor. Our mix of English-Tagalog wasn’t enough to start a serious conversation about  faith healing.

From what I understood this healer was a successful businessman before. He was one of the big scrap dealers in Manila at the time of President Marcos. He is now a Faith Healer and it seems he doesn’t really earn much money from his actual trade.

Since he is a very nice man I treated his whole group for lunch at Jollibee. Although we must have been a strange sight, especially when he started a loud incantation at the end of the meal, most of the Filipinos around me never seemed to mind us.

He promised to help me if I ever become bewitched or if I get problems with Filipino (mythical) creatures (Aswang - vampires; Duwende - dwarfs; Mangkukulam - witches; Multo - ghosts; Tiyanak - evil spirits, etc.)

Wow! It is quite a relief to know I have such a powerful new friend! ;-)

Quiapo's Faith Healers.

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Quiapo's Faith Healers.

The Philippines are renowned for their faith healers, who perform surgery without knives and promise miracle cures for all kinds of ailments, from cancer to liver problems.

Faith healing existed in the Philippines before the medical science and before homeopathic doctors. Faith healing is the art of curing people simply by a prayer or by touch without any drugs or any medical facilities.

Faith healers claims to be guided by Christian deities and spirits. Faith healing comes in different forms. The most simple and common is healing by prayer to get rid of the spirit that possessed the body that made the person sick. Some healers lay hands upon the body of the sick or use herbal concoction, oils and incantations. The most hard and controversial is psychic surgery. It is the process of opening up human bodies and extracting tumors or diseases simply by hand. There is no anesthesia but the patient doesn't feel any pain.

Faith healers tread a fine line between magic, mysticism, science and folklore.
All claim their attribution of their healing power to a higher being - often, a gift bestowed on them by the Holy Spirit; or, that they are merely healing mediums of the Holy Spirit. Most of them remembers a divine encounter, a mystical experience.

Acting as an intermediary between the surgeon and the Holy Spirit, Faith Healers occupy a sometimes revered high ground of a mystical saint. Often patients are desperate to be healed, pining their hopes and money on a magical cure to a terminal illness.

(Source: Stuartxchange)

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Quiapo's mystics.

Quiapo's mystics.

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