Dolores Gripalda, from Catanduanes province, finds employment in Bagong Barrio, Caloocan City, Metro Manila as a rug sewer since September of 2008. A widow, it is her only means of earning a living making around 200 pesos per day.

Bagong Barrio, one of the residential areas in Caloocan City, Metro Manila, the Philippines, was formerly a slum area in the 1980s. During that time, some enterprising individuals started the rag making industry by recovering the excess clothing materials from garment factories. They then made these into the familiar disposable, round rag that are now sold in the streets of the metropolis, shops, big factories and companies. The underground industry employs otherwise skill and education challenged individuals who can’t find regular jobs thus enabling them to earn a living.

Today, Bagong Barrio is considered the largest supplier of rags. While only a few families are said to have the capability to provide the raw materials, each one has dependent families and individuals who make the rag s and output around two tons of the product per week. Although there is no study as to how many are engaged and benefiting from this industry, or the extent of its distribution, interviews indicate that these are not only sold within Metro Manila but buyers come from near and distant provinces within Luzon, the largest island in the country.

The industrial complexes of Subic get their supply from Bagong Barrio as well as the many factories in the export processing zones of Laguna, Cavite and Batangas provinces. Every Thursday and Monday morning, wholesale buyers from the northern province of Nueva Ecija come to get their stock for distribution in many more areas up north in Cagayan Valley.

Story was done in April 2009.

This slideshow is a bigger edit and consists of 27 images.

I’ve decided to make a slideshow of the A Ritual of Faith work and this time, it consists of 27 images. Except for two, I used these as my submission to the Prix Mark Grosset contest.

This shows more aspect of the preparation and ritual, which I think is also important in understanding more about the subject. I was really tempted to do an edit of 30 or more images but finally settled for these set.

A fun wig vendor at Divisoria in Manila

This is my third multimedia slideshow and the second to be posted in this blog that I submitted for my follow up assignment for the Advance News Photography course subject. I posted the Jai Alai tournament at the previous post.

The idea was to present holiday street scenes that shows people engrossed in the spirit of the season. What better way to show this than to be in the heart of Manila’s bargain destination: Divisoria, a sprawling area known for its cheap goods (many are bootleg items). Almost any kind of products are sold here from food, clothes, decors and a host of bric-à-brac that the sheer variety overwhelms the senses. These are mostly imported from China and are displayed inside malls, along the streets and every nook and cranny!

On a weekend just before Christmas Day and New Year, prepare to wade through a sea of people from every walks of life and from every economic status braving it out for a bargain product that will be given away as holiday presents.

Like the previous work, I’m still familiarizing myself in assembling a multimedia slideshow that combines several audio files with the photographs. I think I still have a long way to go to finally perfect this one.

A pelotari serving during a jai alai tournament

This was my assignment in the Advance News Photography course in ACFJ dealing with sports. Fortunately, when we had this one, the Manila Amateur Jai Alai Association had their yearend tournament. As posted before, I am documenting this unique sport as part of my course project. With permission from Alex Singca, association president and the one I interviewed here, I was able to cover the tournament for two days just before I flew to Cebu. This is a work in progress and if you might notice, I still have a lot to learn in assembling a multimedia slideshow. This is just a start.

Last 8 December, I was at a District Mobile Force checkpoint under the Eastern Police District (EPD) located at Marcos Highway at the boundary of Marikina City and Cainta, Rizal to cover a police night shift for a course assignment. This site was originally built under the now defunct National Anti-kidnaping Task Force (NAKTAF) but is now under the EPD, known as one of the peaceful police districts in Metro Manila.

PO1 Danny Rito, the team leader, and PO1 Ryan Taguimacon, 33 and 28 years old respectively have been manning the night shift at this checkpoint for a number of months already. Originally, there were seven officers but due to requirements from other police stations within the district, they were “download,” a term to mean reassigned, that only four were left and equally divided into two shifts, six days a week.

The police officers’ typical shift may address complaints and problems within the entire stretch of the highway ranging from vehicular accidents, directing traffic in case of traffic jams, hold ups, pickpockets and other thefts, bar fights and sometimes, altercations between people. But most of the time, it’s spent monitoring the radio for advisories and reports and updating headquarters. During lean nights, the TV keeps them company.

Note: My thanx to Dennis Rito who referred me to his brother.