Manila Noir Read online

  Manila Noir

  Jessica Hagedorn

  Akashic Books (2013)

  * * *

  Rating: ★★★☆☆

  Tags: ebook

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  "While certain cities in past Akashic volumes might appear to lack an obvious noir element, Manila (like Mexico City, which shares many of the same problems) practically defines it, as shown by the 14 selections in this excellent anthology. As Hagedorn points out in her insightful introduction, Manila is a city burdened with a violent and painful past, with a long heritage of foreign occupation. The specters of WWII (during which the city suffered from U.S. saturation bombing), and the oppressive 20-year reign of dictator Ferdinand Marcos live on in recent memory. The Filipino take on noir includes a liberal dose of the gothic and supernatural, with disappearance and loss being constants."

  --Publishers Weekly (starred review)

  "This Southeast sampler is unique, possessing an overall gritty tone. Each slice of supernatural splendor pulls the reader in with their nontraditional heroes…Ultimately, readers get a strong taste of the real Manila and all her dark secrets, wanting more of while being slightly afraid of what she might do next. Manila is the perfect place for noir scenes to occur, and it is easy to get sucked into its deadly nightshade of doom."

  --Criminal Class Press

  Brand-new stories by: Lourd De Veyra, Gina Apostol, Budjette Tan and Kajo Baldisimo, F.H. Batacan, Jose Dalisay Jr., Eric Gamalinda, Jessica Hagedorn, Angelo Lacuesta, R. Zamora Linmark, Rosario Cruz-Lucero, Sabina Murray, Jonas Vitman, Marianne Villanueva, and Lysley Tenorio.

  Manila provides the ideal, torrid setting for an Akashic Noir series volume. It's where the rich rub shoulders with the poor, where five-star hotels coexist with informal settlements, where religious zeal coexists with superstition, and where politics is often synonymous with celebrity and corruption.

  From the Introduction by Jessica Hagedorn:

  Manila is not for the faint of heart. Built on water and reclaimed land, it’s an intense, congested, teeming megalopolis, the vital core of an urban network of sixteen cities and one municipality collectively known as Metro Manila. Population: over ten million and growing by the minute. Climate: tropical. Which means hot, humid, prone to torrential monsoon rains of biblical proportions.

  I think of Manila as the ultimate femme fatale. Complicated and mysterious, with a tainted, painful past. She’s been invaded, plundered, raped, and pillaged, colonized for four hundred years by Spain and fifty years by the US, bombed and pretty much decimated by Japanese and American forces during an epic, month-long battle in 1945.

  Yet somehow, and with no thanks to the corrupt politicians, the crime syndicates, and the indifferent rich who rule the roost, Manila bounces back. The people’s ability to endure, adapt, and forgive never ceases to amaze, whether it’s about rebuilding from the latest round of catastrophic flooding, or rebuilding from the ashes of a horrific world war, or the ashes of the brutal, twenty-year dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos . . .

  Many years have passed since the end of the Marcos dictatorship. People are free to write and say what they want, yet nothing is different. The poor are still poor, the rich are still rich, and overseas workers toil in faraway places like Saudi Arabia, Israel, Germany, and Finland. Glaring inequities are a source of dark humor to many Filipinos, but really—just another day in the life . . .

  Writers from the Americas and Europe are known for a certain style of noir fiction, but the rest of the world approaches the crime story from a culturally unique perspective. In Manila Noir we find that the genre is flexible enough to incorporate flamboyant emotion and the supernatural, along with the usual elements noir fans have come to expect: moody atmospherics, terse dialogue, sudden violence, mordant humor, a fatalist vision.

  Review

  "For those who love travel, history, and a little bit of lore, this anthology transports you to the Philippines and is filled with riveting and sometimes dark stories of the capital city."

  --Glamour (summer reading pick)

  "[Manila Noir] is among the most moving, effective and altogether noir entry in the entire series."

  --Bookgasm

  "Suffice it to say that what the Noir series in general, and Manila Noir in particular, does so well is to create a 360-degree mosaic of a place…By including so many perspectives, from so many walks of life, Manila Noir makes Manila seem as vibrant, and dangerous, and exciting, and confounding as it really felt to live there."

  --Lit Wrap

  "A collection of stories like Akashic’s forthcoming Manila Noir is enough to set a crime-fiction addict’s mouth watering."

  --New York Observer

  "In…Manila Noir, the latest addition to Akashic Book’s series of original noir anthologies, poet, novelist, and artist Jessica Hagedorn writes of how ghosts of past occupations, buried secrets, corrupt political dealings, crime, and inequality have shaped the fabric of the Philippine capital city."

  --The Margins

  "Held closely to their breasts by the stories are messy, edged lives flaring out in seemingly random directions. But the 14 stories themselves are all elegant and smooth, like a bladed weapon concealed in a jacket. They strike suddenly but thoroughly, leaving you wounded. Embedded in each story is a deep acceptance of the fantastically flawed life in the big city and a step out of the ordinary…Manila Noir is a masterfully crafted anthology that reminds us that, if you truly love your city, you embrace its darkness as much as—if not more than—its brightness."

  --Inquirer (Philippines)

  "Excellently crafted and woven together, Jessica has compiled a series of short stories that exhibit the perfect setting and story for noir. Wonderful!"

  --FMAM Magazine

  About the Author

  Jessica Hagedorn was born in Manila and now lives in New York. A novelist, poet, and playwright, her published works include Toxicology, The Gangster of Love, and Dogeaters, which was a finalist for the National Book Award. She also edited both volumes of the groundbreaking anthology Charlie Chan Is Dead: An Anthology of Contemporary Asian American Fiction.

  This collection is comprised of works of fiction. All names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the authors’ imaginations. Any resemblance to real events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  Published by Akashic Books

  ©2013 Akashic Books

  Copyright to the individual stories is retained by the authors

  Series concept by Tim McLoughlin and Johnny Temple

  Manila map by Aaron Petrovich

  ISBN-13: 978-1-61775-160-8

  eISBN: 9781617751769

  Library of Congress Control Number: 2012954508

  All rights reserved

  First printing

  Akashic Books

  PO Box 1456

  New York, NY 10009

  [email protected]

  www.akashicbooks.com

  TABLE OF CONTENTS

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  Introduction

  PART I: US AGAINST THEM

  LYSLEY TENORIO

  Aviary

  Greenbelt Mall, Makati

  ROSARIO CRUZ-LUCERO

  A Human Right

  Intramuros

  LOURD DE VEYRA

  Satan Has Already Bought U

  Project 2, Quezon City

  SABINA MURRAY

  Broken Glass

  New Manila

  ANGELO R. LACUESTA

  After Midnight

  J.P. Rizal

  PART II: BLACK PEARL OF THE ORIENT

  BUDJETTE TAN & KAJO BALDISIMO

  Trese: Thirteen Stations

  EDSA,

  Metro Manila

>   F.H. BATACAN

  Comforter of the Afflicted

  Lagro

  JOSE DALISAY

  The Professor’s Wife

  Diliman

  R. ZAMORA LINMARK

  Cariño Brutal

  Tondo

  GINA APOSTOL

  The Unintended

  Ali Mall, Cubao

  PART III: THEY LIVE BY NIGHT

  JESSICA HAGEDORN

  Old Money

  Forbes Park

  MARIANNE VILLANUEVA

  Desire

  Ermita

  ERIC GAMALINDA

  Darling, You Can Count on Me

  Santa Cruz

  JONAS VITMAN

  Norma from Norman

  Chinatown

  About the Contributors

  About the Akashic Noir Series

  About Akashic Books

  INTRODUCTION

  FEMME FATALE

  1. She mostly wears red. And sometimes black.

  I like to think of Manila as a woman of mystery, the ultimate femme fatale. Sexy, complicated, and tainted by a dark and painful past, she’s not to be trusted. And why should she be? She’s been betrayed time and again, invaded, plundered, raped, and pillaged, colonized for nearly four hundred years by Spain and fifty years by the United States, brutally occupied from 1942 to 1945 by the Japanese army, bombed and pretty much decimated by Japanese and US forces during an epic, month-long battle in 1945. In spite, or because of this bloody history, Manileños (her wild and wayward children) have managed to adapt, survive, and even thrive. Their ability to bounce back—whether from the latest round of catastrophic flooding, the ashes of a twenty-year dictatorship, or a horrific world war—never ceases to amaze.

  Manila is where I was born, a city of heat and shadow and secrets, perfect for this genre we call noir. Built on water and reclaimed land, Manila has evolved over the years into an intense, congested, teeming megalopolis, the vital core of an urban network of sixteen cities and one municipality nowadays collectively known as Metro Manila. Around twelve million people live there presently, maybe more. The numbers are increasing by the minute.

  Can we talk about her considerable nostalgic charm? Roxas Boulevard, a waterfront roadway along Manila Bay, is akin to the Malecón in old Havana, Cuba, down to its stately coconut palm trees, glorious sunsets, and fraught colonial history. The esplanade along the eroding seawall is one of Manila’s few democratic public spaces. Where anyone, rich or poor, can seek respite from the clamor and pollution of the city and gaze at the water and dream. Both Roxas and Havana’s Malecón were constructed during the early 1900s, when Cuba and the Philippines were under US military rule. When I was a child, Roxas was known as Dewey Boulevard, after the American admiral. Back then, I never questioned the weirdness of all those streets named after Americans; that tells you everything. The US embassy is still located on one end of Roxas Boulevard, to this day a site of hope, deep resentment, and longing. Under a boiling sun, Filipinos line up to apply for their exit visas. The lines are long. So is the wait.

  2. Ghosts

  Many Filipinos of a certain generation will remain forever haunted by the twenty-year reign of Ferdinand Marcos and his glamorous “Steel Butterfly” first lady, Imelda. Many would rather forget. After all, Ferdinand Marcos is dead. And his eighty-three-yearold widow, once-feared and reviled, now merely comes across as dotty and harmless. The Marcos regime was enthusiastically backed by the US from the start, until the plundering of coffers, the declaration of martial law, the widespread use of torture and killing of dissidents, and the brazen assassination of Senator Ninoy Aquino became much too embarrassing. The people stormed the palace, the Marcoses fled to Hawaii, and their corrupt rule came to a spectacular and very public end in 1986. Or did it?

  In the Philippines, playful nicknames are ubiquitous and history has a way of repeating itself in the most ironic of ways. Ferdinand “Bong Bong” Marcos Jr., the only son of Ferdinand and Imelda, is now a senator. Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III, whose mother was the iconic President Corazon Aquino and whose father was the equally iconic Senator Ninoy Aquino, is the current president. Dashing, handsome Ninoy happened to be one of Imelda’s early suitors. It can get really confusing. Ninoy led the opposition against the Marcos government and was shot getting off the plane at Manila International Airport when he returned from exile in 1983. The assassination made headlines worldwide; Ninoy Aquino became a national hero and a martyr for the cause. The airport has been renamed after him. There’s an official holiday and a museum. The mastermind behind Aquino’s very public murder—whether it was Ferdy, Imelda, or some pissed-off army general or someone else—remains a mystery.

  Many years have passed since the dark times of martial law and the Marcos dictatorship. People are now free to write and say what they want. The economy seems to be on an upswing. Call centers are big business, and there are art galleries, indie bands, and film collectives flourishing in places like Quezon City. But glaring inequities still exist, and workers must toil in faraway places like Saudi Arabia, Israel, Germany, Italy, Spain, and Iceland just to support their families. There have been many documented cases of female domestic overseas workers being treated as slaves, sexually and physically abused, even killed by their employers.

  3. Either nothing surprises you in Manila, or everything does.

  Here’s a telling story. The current four-term mayor of Manila, Alfredo Lim, is a former senator and former cop. He’s an avuncular kinda guy, known by his colorful moniker: Dirty Harry. One of his legendary stunts involved spray-painting the homes of alleged drug dealers in red. The people ate it up. Though the people aren’t stupid—they just know a good stunt when they see one. In 2008, his forty-four-year-old “businessman” son Manuel was busted attempting to sell one hundred grams of shabu (crystal meth) to an undercover agent. You can go online and Google the whole sorry, sordid mess. Needless to say, the mayor played the part of the stern, glowering father. “He’s forty-four years old,” Mayor Lim said about his son’s arrest in the Philippine Daily Inquirer. “He should be ready to face the consequences of his actions. Let him suffer …” Needless to say, witnesses for the prosecution never bothered showing up and the case was quickly thrown out of court. Fast-forward to 2012. Mayor Lim announces his plans to run for reelection in 2013. Challenging him will be former impeached president and mustachioed action star Joseph Estrada, once voted “the tenth most corrupt leader in the world.” Ah, yes. Another day in the life.

  4. There are crimes, and there are crimes.

  Manila’s a city of survivors, schemers, and dreamers. Where a down-and-out kid from the sticks named Manny Pacquiao can punch his way to the top with his fists, become a congressman, star in action movies, and—like other action stars before him— maybe even one day become president.

  Manila’s a city of extremes. Where the rich live in posh enclaves, guarded by men with guns. Where the poor improvise homes out of wood, tin, and cardboard and live by their wits. Where five-star hotels and luxury malls selling Prada and Louis Vuitton coexist with toxic garbage dumps and sprawling “informal settlements” (a.k.a. squatter settlements), where religious zeal coexists with superstition, where “hospitality” might be another word for prostitution, where sports and show business can be the first step to politics, where politics can be synonymous with nepotism, cronyism, and corruption, where violence is nothing out of the ordinary, and pretty much anything can be had for a price—if you have the money and/or the connections, that is.

  The cops are often in collusion with the syndicates behind many of the more profitable crimes like kidnapping, extortion, human trafficking, and drugs. Justice is questionable. Homicides are often fueled by jealous rage, a thirst for revenge, machismo, and unrequited love. Or by a paranoid psychosis brought on by smoking shabu. Or maybe, just maybe, by hanging out in a karaoke dive, drinking too much, and singing “My Way” in the wrong key.

  Writers from the Americas and Europe are known for a certain sty
le of noir fiction, but the rest of the world approaches the crime story from culturally unique perspectives. The Philippines has produced many distinguished writers and poets writing in English. It’s a shame that these works are so hard to come by outside of the Philippines. Several contemporary writers have left their indelible mark on crime fiction. Three immediately come to mind: Charlson Ong, F.H. Batacan, and Wilfredo Garrido. In putting this anthology together, I found the noir genre flexible enough to accommodate the Filipino flair for the gothic and the world of the supernatural. The modern Filipino can be urbane and cosmopolitan, wear delicate crosses and amulets around his or her neck, go to confession on Fridays, club-hop on Saturdays, and attend Mass on Sundays, while still believing in the presence of duendes, kapres, and bloodsucking aswangs. As you will see from this steamy collection of stories, all these delicious contradictions serve to enrich and expand our concept of noir. What you will also find are the noir essentials: alienated and desperate characters, terse dialogue, sudden violence, betrayals left and right. And of course, there’s plenty of mordant humor. And of course, there are no happy endings.

  5. Fabulous & Fearless

  Gina Apostol, F.H. Batacan, Jose Dalisay, Lourd de Veyra, Eric Gamalinda, Angelo R. Lacuesta, R. Zamora Linmark, Rosario Cruz-Lucero, Sabina Murray, Marianne Villanueva, Jonas Vitman, Lysley Tenorio, and the graphic noir team of Budjette Tan and Kajo Baldisimo serve up a real taste of life in one of the wildest cities on the planet. The characters and locations are all over the map in the best possible way. There are transvestites and transsexuals in Chinatown and Tondo, shabuheads in Quezon City, feral street kids in Makati, lovelorn professors in Diliman, and even a Jesuit forensic anthropologist investigating a murder in Lagro. The surprise centerpiece of this anthology is Tan & Baldisimo’s “Thirteen Stations,” a graphic noir set in public transit stations where ghastly crimes are taking place. Cool, otherworldly detective Alexandra Trese, the heroine of Tan & Baldisimo’s hugely popular Trese series, is summoned to deal with these crimes. It made perfect sense to include a graphic noir, since one of the many ways I learned to become a writer was through the Filipino horror komiks of my childhood. Consider it my homage. All the fabulous and fearless writers gathered here, whether they are living in Manila, the US, or elsewhere in the ever-growing Philippine diaspora, have a deep connection and abiding love for this crazy-making, intoxicating city. There’s nothing like it in the world, and they know it.