A thousand pardons for delaying the completion of this story. Anyhoo. As I said in the end of the earlier post, the sting went down smoothly. Soon enough, a crowd gathered around the money changer as a police van drove up to deposit even more cops (below). The heat had reached a boil.
Eagerly I awaited in the van for my cue.
But for those of you out there who are like me, undecided about the political colorings of this television station, perhaps this might mean something. Looky-looky what I found on the car seat next to me! (photo above) Oh my. Then again, I'll give this station the benefit of the doubt. Perhaps someone threw the pin into their TV van while they were covering a rally. Nevertheless, such an ugly pin. A badly printed Gloria/Marcos composite portrait. Tsk tsk.
But once again, I digress.
To cut a long story short, my cue is finally called and I enter stage left to give my courtesy on-camera "sabunutan/iskandalo royale" moment with Pokpok Celphone Princess. And as quickly as it was all planned, as quickly it all ended. The TV crew departed and I now I was left alone to deal with the reality of the cops, filing charges against PCP, and getting my money back. Ugh. Fine. Whatever. Bring it on.
So like a pack of happy campers, the cops, PCP, two of her cohorts and I pile into to the pulis-mobile and head out towards Manila City Hall SOG Office. Meanwhile, PCP was still feverishly texting on her celphone to places unknown. I decided to just take in the sunset (above). It was a lovely afternoon despite.
5:30PM
Location: Manila City Hall SOG
At this point, PCP was already repentant and weepy. She begged that I have pity on her because her son would simply die of shame if his classmates see his mama on TV Patrol News. I told her she should have thought of that before she made her career choice. Besides, I didn't work for ABS-CBN, how could I possibly stop her segment from airing? I did start feeling bad for her though. Not to mention, it was getting late and I really wanted to go home. I needed time to think.
Meanwhile, records were written up. Note: Ignore the crappy walls behind the records officer in the photo above. The office walls, air-conditioner, lavatory, and criminal holding cells are currently under renovation. A little bit more on this later...
Photos were also taken (above)...
And as tribal justice goes, negotiations were made for retribution. In the end, I decided to drop the charges. After all, PCP (real name: Mina Nunez) was not the lady who hypnotized me per se so she couldn't possibly be guilty of the crime itself. But due to her actions and admissions, she had proven without a doubt that she had knowledge of the modus operandi and was guilty of being an accessory to the crime. Justice was finally served to me in the form of a typewritten contract assuring that I would be paid back what was due and apologizing for the inconvenience caused. It also came with an oral promise from Mina that she would TRY to find another career. I also collected my balance with an exchange rate of Php60.00 as opposed to the Php65.00 as falsely promised earlier and I did this by choice. I could have asked for more, but the bad karma had to stop right here and right now. Enough negativity had been spread. I did not need to make a profit from this experience. As I was leaving, I finally recommended to Mina that she try out for the Sex Bomb Dancers. I heard they were auditioning. She looked at me as if I was crazy. Then she giggled.
As for the money changer, it was still closed when I passed by yesterday, shut down by the mayor himself apparently. Thank you Mayor Atienza, Jason, Col. Sanchez, and Col. Ibay of the Manila Security Operations Group for a job well done (I sent the SOG Office some Greenwich Pizzas as a token of my esteem). And thanks mucho also to Kim, for the TV Patrol moment. I've always wondered what it would be like to come out in the Metro Crime Blotter section of the news. Now I know.
But throughout the entire ordeal, my favorite moment bar none was when I had to use the SOG lavatory (above). Since the regular one beside the SOG office was still being renovated, I had to go use their old one in the back, deep within the bowels of Manila City Hall, near the old holding cell for petty criminals (below, playing cards). It was there that I found a wiry, effeminate Gollum-like creature cooking one of the finest Sinigangs I have ever had the pleasure to smell. While walking past him, he said to me, "Alam mo, sindikato ang babaeng 'yan. Sana siningil mo ng dose mil." (Ya know, that girl is part of a syndicate. You could have collected twelve thousand.") Surreal. So so surreal. Good God. I love this town.
7:00PM
I head home finally. Not any poorer that's for sure. But definitely much richer in many ways.
Postscript: I also wonder if this segment actually showed on TV Patrol. Anyone see it? I never caught it. Maybe Mina's son was mercifully saved from the shame of it all as well.
Eagerly I awaited in the van for my cue.
But for those of you out there who are like me, undecided about the political colorings of this television station, perhaps this might mean something. Looky-looky what I found on the car seat next to me! (photo above) Oh my. Then again, I'll give this station the benefit of the doubt. Perhaps someone threw the pin into their TV van while they were covering a rally. Nevertheless, such an ugly pin. A badly printed Gloria/Marcos composite portrait. Tsk tsk.But once again, I digress.
To cut a long story short, my cue is finally called and I enter stage left to give my courtesy on-camera "sabunutan/iskandalo royale" moment with Pokpok Celphone Princess. And as quickly as it was all planned, as quickly it all ended. The TV crew departed and I now I was left alone to deal with the reality of the cops, filing charges against PCP, and getting my money back. Ugh. Fine. Whatever. Bring it on.
So like a pack of happy campers, the cops, PCP, two of her cohorts and I pile into to the pulis-mobile and head out towards Manila City Hall SOG Office. Meanwhile, PCP was still feverishly texting on her celphone to places unknown. I decided to just take in the sunset (above). It was a lovely afternoon despite.5:30PM
Location: Manila City Hall SOG
At this point, PCP was already repentant and weepy. She begged that I have pity on her because her son would simply die of shame if his classmates see his mama on TV Patrol News. I told her she should have thought of that before she made her career choice. Besides, I didn't work for ABS-CBN, how could I possibly stop her segment from airing? I did start feeling bad for her though. Not to mention, it was getting late and I really wanted to go home. I needed time to think.
Meanwhile, records were written up. Note: Ignore the crappy walls behind the records officer in the photo above. The office walls, air-conditioner, lavatory, and criminal holding cells are currently under renovation. A little bit more on this later...
Photos were also taken (above)...And as tribal justice goes, negotiations were made for retribution. In the end, I decided to drop the charges. After all, PCP (real name: Mina Nunez) was not the lady who hypnotized me per se so she couldn't possibly be guilty of the crime itself. But due to her actions and admissions, she had proven without a doubt that she had knowledge of the modus operandi and was guilty of being an accessory to the crime. Justice was finally served to me in the form of a typewritten contract assuring that I would be paid back what was due and apologizing for the inconvenience caused. It also came with an oral promise from Mina that she would TRY to find another career. I also collected my balance with an exchange rate of Php60.00 as opposed to the Php65.00 as falsely promised earlier and I did this by choice. I could have asked for more, but the bad karma had to stop right here and right now. Enough negativity had been spread. I did not need to make a profit from this experience. As I was leaving, I finally recommended to Mina that she try out for the Sex Bomb Dancers. I heard they were auditioning. She looked at me as if I was crazy. Then she giggled.
As for the money changer, it was still closed when I passed by yesterday, shut down by the mayor himself apparently. Thank you Mayor Atienza, Jason, Col. Sanchez, and Col. Ibay of the Manila Security Operations Group for a job well done (I sent the SOG Office some Greenwich Pizzas as a token of my esteem). And thanks mucho also to Kim, for the TV Patrol moment. I've always wondered what it would be like to come out in the Metro Crime Blotter section of the news. Now I know.
But throughout the entire ordeal, my favorite moment bar none was when I had to use the SOG lavatory (above). Since the regular one beside the SOG office was still being renovated, I had to go use their old one in the back, deep within the bowels of Manila City Hall, near the old holding cell for petty criminals (below, playing cards). It was there that I found a wiry, effeminate Gollum-like creature cooking one of the finest Sinigangs I have ever had the pleasure to smell. While walking past him, he said to me, "Alam mo, sindikato ang babaeng 'yan. Sana siningil mo ng dose mil." (Ya know, that girl is part of a syndicate. You could have collected twelve thousand.") Surreal. So so surreal. Good God. I love this town.
7:00PMI head home finally. Not any poorer that's for sure. But definitely much richer in many ways.
Postscript: I also wonder if this segment actually showed on TV Patrol. Anyone see it? I never caught it. Maybe Mina's son was mercifully saved from the shame of it all as well.
