The Circle of Life

From my past experience with Quezon City Memorial Circle, I already knew that it was a place full of physical activity. My group mates and I arrived at Quezon City Circle and headed straight toward the mausoleum and museum which is said to contain the remains of Manuel L. Quezon and his wife Aurora, but  unfortunately the museum which was supposed to be open on a Sunday morning was unexpectedly closed due to maintenance. After realizing that the museum was closed and that the original person I was supposed to interview was not there, I decided to interview a guard at one of the restaurants nearby.  We then decided to explore the whole of Quezon Memorial Circle (QMC) and see what it had to offer. We saw numerous people doing physical activities, like aerobics and martial arts despite the weather. We stopped here and there watching a group of people doing open aerobics near the fountain wondering why they were doing that and if they felt pressured by the audience that surrounded them.

 I learned it was “open aerobics” because anyone could join, though I was still baffled by how the aerobics instructor could match the song to his movements to the songs being played on the P.A. system. Halfway through the circle we saw Circle of fun which was an amusement park that had not been open for a while. It made me wonder if it was ever open or if we came on the wrong day. After a few more minutes of walking we arrived at the restaurant area. This area is basically a row of small and quaint restaurants all lined up on one side of the street right in front of what appeared to be gym equipment that the public could freely use. After searching through the numerous restaurants we decided to eat at Max’s. After a brief lunch, we decided to go out and find people we could interview.

The Reluctant Guard

I decided to interview the guard right outside Max’s. He seemed to be like a stone statue of some guardian at the door, only moving when a guest was about to enter the restaurant. My first impression was that he looked intimidating. When I looked closer I noticed that he was chubby, slightly balding, had a mole near his left cheek and had some sort of wart on his nose, which you could clearly tell was filled with blood and was ready to burst. Gone was my first impression of him being a “guardian figure.” In an area filled with physical activity he didn’t seem to fit the norm, you would expect the people there to be all active, fit and happy, since the general atmosphere was one of physical fitness.

After we finished lunch, I decided to interview him.  Of course I asked for his permission, but he seemed to be very reluctant and on edge for some reason-- as if the interview was a bad thing. Nevertheless I started the interview by asking him how long he had been working at Quezon Memorial Circle.  He replied bluntly with “3 years.” I then followed that question up by asking him what changes he saw throughout the time that he was working at QMC. He replied “marami”(a lot).  Upon hearing his general answer I wanted to know more so I asked him what he specifically saw. He replied with “mga tree transplants.” He then explained that QMC had an ever changing scenery where they would move trees from place to place or plant completely new ones in their place. He also explained that when trees become damaged they replace them with new ones. He also said that it helps develop the circle, though if you drive around the whole circle you can see that it’s not developing as rapidly as you would expect. In fact to me the circle had a dilapidated and under maintained feel.

            Since he was a guard at QMC I decided to ask him if knew anything about Circle of Fun. I was just curious if that place was still running. While I was asking him that question he asked me to move because as he said (“Dito ka nakikita ka sa camera.”(Move here because you can be seen by the camera.)) He implied that I was within range of the visibility of the Max’s security camera, which leads me to believe that what I was doing something that was not actually allowed, but still I continued to interview him. I then asked him again if he knew anything about it. He replied (“hindi ko alam kasi ditto lang ako.”( I don’t know because  I only stay within this area)) I then asked him for his name and he replied “Ariel Sandialan”.

I then asked him why he works there he replied, (“Para maghanap buhay” (to earn a living)). I then followed by asking him why he wanted to work there in particular and he said monotonously,( “Dito ang gusto ko eh”) His response was frustratingly short and it felt like a dead end. I tried to probe some more. I asked why he chose to work there, if it was because of the scenery or because of the general atmosphere that the places gives. I was hoping that he could give something more because I wanted to know what makes him up in the morning to work. But he did not answer until I said is it because of the money, that is when he replied, (“oo”, (yes))

Even after those frustratingly short answers, I still asked him what motivates him to go to QMC every day to work there. He gave another short answer “madami.”(A lot) Wanting to know more and for a deeper insight, I asked him what his main reason was. He bluntly answered, (“Dahil sa sweldo.” (Because of the money)) I then asked him if there were any other reasons why he wanted to work there.  He gave the same answer; I did not dare ask how much he was making, I assumed it was not much.

I tried a different angle and asked what he hated about QMC. Again he replied “madami” (A lot) I was once again slightly annoyed by his short answers. I then tried to get him to speak more by asking what he specifically hates or dislikes about the place. To my surprise he answered, (“Mga taong gumagala” (people who roam around)) this was surprising because he works at a park, which is full of people who roam around. I also asked him to describe his typical day. He said that his typical day was to stand at the door and help customers who wanted to get in. I asked if he gets tired from standing all day. He said “Sanayan lang” (you get used to it)) Then he looked as if he wanted to end the interview and wanted us to walk away and so we had no choice but to end the interview and leave.

The Sad Truth

As I walked away I felt dismayed because I thought that the interview was really lacking in substance. I still wanted to know more about how people view QMC. So my group mates and I decided to walk around and look for a guard of QMC in the hopes he could tell me more. Hoping to salvage the situation my group mates and I decided to wonder around and after a few minutes of walking we ended up back in the middle of the circle, where we originally saw the group of people doing aerobics. We found two guards near the fountain in the center of the circle. We decided to interview them, so we asked the first one which was tall and seemed to be fit if we could interview him. Unfortunately he said no and told us that an interview with a guard in the area was forbidden. His exact words were (“Bawala mag interview ditto” (Interview are not allowed here)) This is when I realized why Ariel’s answers where rather short and curt. He was probably afraid of getting caught giving an interview that’s why he asked me to move away from the camera’s view. I found Ariel ironic, because QMC is a placed filled active and happy people moving about and having fun, which is contrast to Ariel who stands all day for a living, doesn’t seem to enjoy his job, and is constantly being watched.