Round-the-Clock Activities
from Slum as a Way of Life, by F. Landa Jocano

Reference: Jocano, F. L. (1975). Round-the-Clock Activities. Slum as a Way of Life. Quezon City, New Day Publishers: 33-50.

LIFE IN LOOBAN

Life in Looban is best understood in terms of face-to-face interactions among the residents. In fact, the manner in which members of the community define the range and set the limit of 'social boundaries is best exemplified by the degree of intimacy, as well as the frequency,' of interactions among themselves. What often begins as private information about events in the neighbourhood - familial or non-familial - ends up as public knowledge sooner than realized by those who are involved. This includes personal opinions about people and local happenings. Information easily passes from one channel of communication to another, frequently relayed by individuals in face-to-face contact in places where such channels are institutionalized. A brief overview description of areas where most encounters take place is therefore crucial as points of departure in understanding Looban life style.

THE 24-HOUR CYCLE

It is difficult to characterize the hustle and bustle of life in Looban with precision, even if one has lived there long enough to know most of the residents. There is something so commonplace about Looban and yet so mysterious. Human activities seem to flow continuously through the twenty-four hour period. The pace is varied and fleeting. To the outsiders, some activities in Looban appear to be the same - pursued in a stereotype manner, as in keeping stores, driving jeepneys, scavenging, laundrying, and so forth. But on closer investigation, what appears to be routine activities are often carried out in a different way and seen in a new perspective each succeeding day. What seem to be static in form are actually dynamic in content.

Moreover, the residents themselves view their everyday activities in relation to the day these are performed. The plans for the future, except for certain occasions, are always assessed or anticipated in terms of the present. In the next section, we shall describe mainly the external features of events that take place in the community: the round-the-clock activities.

For proper perspective, it is necessary to explain the local concept of time. Time is understood by most Looban residents as a continuum. The local term for this phenomenon is panahon. It is distinguished from the mechanical time, as in the watch, which is of shorter duration. The latter is known by a borrowed term oras (derived from hora - Spanish for hour). Activities are anchored on this framework. What one cannot do in the morning he can do in the afternoon. Thus, it is a locally accepted belief that there are jobs which should be done only in the morning, at noon-time, in mid-afternoon, during early evening, or late at night. This point of view is tenaciously held by many, particularly the young members of the community.

A much shorter portion of panahon is saglit. This is likewise viewed as part of the continuum. Because wrist-watches and clocks are available, saglit is measured or determined by most people in terms of minutes and hours; the 24-hour cycle is understood to constitute a day. It must be stressed, however, that in spite of this orientation, there are still people in the community who tell time by the position of the sun or by appropriate activities performed. In any case, one can describe Looban activities in the context of these points in time: panahon, oras, saglit.

In order to gain insight into the articulation of activities according to this time perspective, let us begin describing Looban activities during a typical day which start early in the morning.

The day usually begins, around five o'clock in the morning. At this hour, the place slowly comes to life. Storekeepers start business at this time; the magtitinapay (bread-vendors) make their rounds among the different stores and individual customers. Jeepney drivers likewise start hitting the road for the day's pasada. Newspaper boys and vegetable and rice-cake vendors also take to the streets, shouting their wares as they go along. By six, the children are up and about and by seven, they are already out in the street. Older siblings and family heads are also up; the girls generally prepare the breakfast.

Vegetable vendors, shoe-shine boys and pushcart "entrepreneurs" buying old newspapers, magazines and other discarded objects like bottles and metals are also in the street by eight. This may continue for as long as there are customers in the neighborhood.

Jukeboxes in nearby restaurants blare out the latest top tunes from early in the morning until about midnight when all the customers leave for home. Similarly, radios are simultaneously heard at full volume from the different dwellings as they broadcast the day's news, soap-operas, pop music and the views of radio commentators on some political, religious or social issue.

By nine in the morning the entire community is fully awake. The voices of children and ice-cream vendors can be heard distinctly. Travelling shoe repairmen, shoe-shine boys, menders of kitchen utensils, and knife-and-scissors sharpeners are out plying their trade. As they advertise their wares and services and call out loud for customers, their voices intermingle with theme of mothers as the latter put their babies to sleep, call out for someone or scold a child. Occasionally, the roar of speeding vehicles as they pass through the area add to the cacophony of sounds. Around this time, too, womenfolk are already doing their laundry near the illegally-opened fire-hydrant. Stores have opened by this time and groups of teenagers are normally seen hanging around or more often drinking, especially if it is a weekend. This sometimes lasts until noon.

During hot months, there is a general lull from twelve noon to one o'clock in the afternoon. This time of the day finds almost everyone either at home taking a siesta or underneath a shed in front of a sari-sari store engaged in something else - the women, both Young and old, may be going through each other's hair picking lice while indulging in the latest gossips and the men more often than not enjoying a heated discussion on this or that subject. The streets are usually empty at this hour. But by two o'clock, life begins again and the hustle and bustle of the neighborhood continues well into late afternoon. From five to seven, the streets are again full of people - the adults either watching the children play or merely loafing around.

Between the hours of eight and nine in the evening, as the children head for home, teenagers take over the streets. Some of them sit on the bridge over the stereo, strumming a guitar and singing well into the night; others hang around the corner store, smoking, talking, and watching passers-by. The voices of these adolescents mingle with those of the balut vendors who take to the streets at about ten o'clock in the evening. The activities of the young people may go on until midnight.

There is generally another lull between one and four o'clock in the morning, although street fights often take place during this time. By five o'clock, the usual activities start all over again. Another day has begun.

CHANNELS OF INTERPERSONAL RELATIONS

There are several places in Looban where slum life spells itself in full. These are the streets, the corner store or tianggi, the barbershop, and the restaurants. The last are located at different sections of Looban. Another place where slum life is also well defined is the "red light" block which is located outside but close to Looban. In this section are a number of small bars and nightspots, some of which maintain 24-hour service. In these places too - i.e., the streets, tianggi, barber-shops and bars - Looban residents congregate, either as bystanders, customers, attendants, waitresses, or simply curious onlookers.

THE STREET (KALYE)

No description of Looban is complete if one ignores the role of the street, locally known as the kalye. The street is the heart of slum life. The common expression anak ka ng kalye (child of the street) metaphorically exemplifies the importance of the street to the lives of the people in Looban. It is the hub of social affairs. Always littered with garbage, the streets and blind alleys or callejons are where people from all walks of life and of every conceivable age, looks, grooming, and build, gather.  Here they socialize, meet for the first time, renew their acquaintances or simply exchange views about almost all topics, ranging from community problems to political strategies and party affiliations.

It can safely be said that life in Looban is actually defined in the street. Some people go to the streets to escape boredom at home or avoid domestic problems; others to do business. At any rate, this is where events are openly discussed, where individual and family statuses are evaluated, and where decisions are reached as to which information should be allowed to leak out or be withheld from the authorities. Information of local activities or events, impending or ongoing, is likewise classified according to whether or not the entire neighborhood should know about them.  In other words, the informal meetings in the street provide the people with ample opportunities to know each other better - to know what each one is doing and why.

The street, in this respect, is as much a part of slum life as is the makeshift barong-barong.  It is a most significant source of knowledge and new ideas.  As such, it almost invariably controls much of what the residents know beyond their families or friends.  Statuses are defined and roles are enacted in the streets.  The moral standards of the entire neighborhood are street-bound.  Even mothers, in disciplining their children, often mention the street as a source of social control. "Ibig mo bang idadaldal ka riyan sa kalye?" (Do you want to be talked about in the streets?) In other words, the street has become an important part of the people's lifeways - an extension of their inner view of social behavior.

This is so because, in many ways, the street is the yard stick by which an individual's behavior is accordingly measured and his appearance standardized and interpreted. Such reactions are not family-centered but community-centered; individual acts are defined in terms of community norms. Most judgments, while pervasive, are largely influenced by the peer group with which a person is identified, the section of the street he frequents, and the behavioral routine he pursues. Every group or section is taken as though each is a self-contained world where the residents carry out their activities, satisfy their needs and legitimize their roles in society.

This does not mean that the people do not possess an overview of the entire neighborhood as a place where they belong. On the contrary, they think of themselves as members of a unit -that is, taga-Looban. Under this wide umbrella of social identity, however, are small groupings where certain aggregates of people belong. The boundaries are personal and the perceptual views associated with them are based on social and ecological factors. However abstract these views may be, they nevertheless function as important points of reference for making judgments and establishing human relations.

Looban is ecologically and socially segmented. Segmentation is cognitive in nature and is based on arbitrary criteria like place of residence, peer group affiliation, sex, and occupation. Each small sector of the neighborhood thinks, for example as a unit by itself. Territorial affiliation is given higher premium in the interpersonal relations of people. Words like na sa kanto, na sa may estero, na sa dulo, na sa gitna and so forth indicate this perceived internal division of units of households into aggregates of ecologically defined residences. Membership in street-corner gangs follows the same order and is restricted to peer group and sex. Sometimes occupation functions as the main source of cohesion among the group as in the case of jeepney drivers.

Each segment in the Looban neighborhood or street thinks independently of each other. In fact, each group has different ways of perceiving the kind of unit, with which an individual is affiliated. They assess each other in a number of ways. If the norms and interests of a unit, for example, contradict those of another, conflicts result. If their interests are similar then alliances are formed.

The street is the common denominator where alliances begin and where affective links between the different social and territorial units in the neighborhood are established. Also, it is the place where conflicts arise and are waged and settled. If a stranger (di-kilala) wanders alone into one of the streets, or at any other place for that matter, he is immediately spotted and asked what he is doing in the place. He has to have a good excuse or a plausible reason for being there, otherwise he finds himself in trouble. He is regarded as an intruder and his actions are interpreted as trespassing. A number of mauling incidents which occurred in Looban while we were there were precipitated by the victim's inability to explain his presence in the neighborhood.

It is in this view of assessing behavior that Looban grouping can best be understood. Those who frequent the streets are people who share the same opinions, ideas, biases and attitudes. However, the manner in which each group occupies a particular area of the street varies. Teenagers usually occupy the street corners. The sidewalks are preempted by older people who either squat or sit right on the ground. Sometimes, the womenfolk join them. The middle of the streets is, by consensus, allotted to children. An adult who stays in the middle of the street is often reminded that he is no longer a child and therefore should avoid the place. Young girls normally walk in groups around the neighborhood, or, in some cases, close to the side alleys. Sometimes they are in front of a friend's house, close to the street, but they always avoid grouping in the middle of the street.

Adolescent females do not frequent the streets. To be seen in the street more often than necessary is to be labelled as babaeng kalye (woman of the street). This is a very derogatory term applied to any woman.

The preference of the males to stay in the street rather than at home is largely influenced by the fact that the home is for private affairs. Moreover, the home is conceived to be the female's domain. It is the woman who is supposed to have the last say in matters pertaining to domestic activities. A man who often stays at home is therefore considered effeminate by his peer group. He is labelled "under the saya" (under the skirt, hence, henpecked):

Because the norm of pagkalalake or being a man is deeply ingrained in the local concept of masculinity, to be labeled "under the saya" is a personal affront to one's manhood. This has to be rectified at all costs. A man reinforces his self-esteem through peer group approval. Drinking, fighting and showing one's courage by participating in manly group activities are some of the ways by which he enhances his masculine image. This is why most males do not stay at home too long or too frequently. To be a man is to be out in the streets, an active participant in community affairs. A person who spends most of his extra time talking with others in the street is considered neighborly; he is a good mixer and therefore, friendly. This desire to create an impression of friendliness prompts a man to hang around the street rather than at home. This is not true of females since they generally stay at home.

There are many forms of socializing in the street which the home cannot offer. For one, neighborhood secrets are openly shared. Even family quarrels are discussed with friends. Illicit love affairs are divulged to peer groups, to gain admiration. Among street-corner gangs, an individual or a group of individuals who return from the national penitentiary or city jail immediately seek the street either to renew their acquaintances or to recount their experiences to an eager audience. The same is true with residents who return from an extended vacation in the province or elsewhere. Attentive ears are never wanting or absent in the street.

This open sharing of supposedly private information among many people is one of the strongest reasons why the street has strong attraction to Looban residents. If a person wants to know what is going on in the neighborhood, he would say: Makikibalita ako sa kalye" (I will obtain news from the street). As everyone becomes privy to every little bit of information in the neighborhood, intimacies soon, develop. While the information shared is private the place of encounter is neutral and, this affords the people a semblance of objectivity, detachment and uninvolvement should subsequent unexpected events occur as a result of this exchange of information. This is what makes people prefer encounters in the street rather than in "their homes".

In the street, open criticism is seldom based on general mores but on personal appraisals that an individual makes of another, according to each, one's known behavior in terms of promises and commitment she has previously filled or left unfulfilled. What may be praiseworthy for one individual be shameful to another. Talking about friends may be disconcerting to many if done in private; it is only shrugged aside as commonplace if done in the street. News about terrifying events seem to lose their significance as soon as they reach the street. The street neutralizes the impact of social pressures on the residents. The only recognized and generally accepted rule in the street is that personal loyalties must take precedence over moral principles. For as long as the individual does not betray the trust which has been vested in him, the general attitude appears to be favorable. The common expression is "he is okay, let him alone; he can be trusted."

Sociologically, therefore, the street may be viewed as an indicator of social phenomena in the community; a social barometer through which events are learned (by word of mouth) or predicted. When the street, for example, is filled with voices of children and songs of teenagers, the entire neighborhood is awake and in a happy mood. When suddenly it is occupied by people who strain their necks out toward one direction. Something unusual is happening in the neighborhood. When the streets are deserted, a dangerous event like a gang war is likely to take place any moment or is already taking place elsewhere in the neighborhood.

It took us long to become oriented to the ethnography of the street and to discover the close link between the street and the events in the neighborhood of Looban.

THE CORNER STORE (TIANGGI)

Next to the street, the tianggi (corner store) is another important part of the neighborhood. It is also a place where channels of effective communication are best established. That which is heard or told in the street soon finds its way to the tianggi, where it is further discussed, edited, expanded, elaborated, and verified before it spreads out to other settings. The tianggi is a variety store. Sometimes it is called tindahan (place where things are sold); at other times it is referred to as the sari-sari (variety) store. Because it serves the economic needs of the people, the tianggi is another place where social, aside from economic, encounter is inevitable. [A newcomer can easily be spotted there and critically appraised as to physical appearance like pangit (ugly) or maganda (pretty), or as to character like mabait (good), masungit (stern, not easy to get along with), gastador (spendthrift) or kuripot (stingy) and so on]. In a way, the tianggi functions as another link between the individual resident and the rest of the neighborhood and between the neighborhood and the bigger society. National economic problems, as reflected in the fluctuation of prices, are immediately felt in Looban in terms of increase or decrease in prices of staples and other basic foodstuffs sold in the tianggi.

There are five tianggi in Looban. Four are found close to each other, while the last one is located at the farthest end of the street toward the eastern section of the neighborhood. The latter is owned by a Chinese; the rest, by Filipino residents.

As an economic institution, the tianggi carries all kinds of consumer items. These include vegetables like tomatoes, garlic, kangkong and string beans as well as dried fish and other commodities. The basic foodstuffs sold are rice, sugar, salt, noodles, and canned goods. Other less important items consist of cigarettes, areca nuts, tobacco, ropes and toys.

The capitalization of these variety stores in Looban varies from P50.00 to P500.00. These figures are mere estimates; no one really tells the truth about the owners' investments. It is rumored, at the time of the study, that the Chinese store owner had invested more than P100,000.00, excluding the building which houses the store. The amount covers only the value of the goods being sold.

Information on the daily earnings or profits of these tianggi is difficult to get. Informants are vague in their responses and they tend to evade direct questions concerning how much they make from their stores. In any case, the mark-ups of the numerous items sold vary from 5 to 100 percent. The latter is particularly true with respect to non-perishable but immediately needed foodstuffs, like sugar, salt, rice, and others. Perishable goods like leafy vegetables, bananas, rice cakes and fish have mark-up prices which range from P0.10 to P0.30. Approximately, the average daily net profit is between 10 and 20 percent of the original capital invested.

Competition among the tianggi owners is very stiff and often triggers open conflicts. For example, one day Aling Felicing sold bananas at a price lower than those of the others. She was not very particular about the price since her supply came from the province, which was less expensive. However, this affected the other tianggi owners, leading to unfavorable events and to a price war among the owners. To attract more customers to their stores, they also lowered their prices and incurred losses in the process. This kind of competition led to caustic and uncalled for comments from many people, particularly their regular customers.

Aling Inciang, another tianggi owner, was different, however. She refused to lower her price. Soon customers started accusing her of jacking up her price. She therefore went over to Aling Felicing and inquired why she had priced her bananas that low. The latter answered she could do whatever she liked and if Aling Inciang had any complaints, she had better quit business or move somewhere else.

A heated argument ensued as a result. Soon the entire neighborhood was out in the street, listening to the verbal battle. Some commented that Aling Inciang should not have done what she did; others defended Aling Felicing. At any rate, the two protagonists continued to shout at each other. The original issue was soon forgotten and the behavior, moral values, and personal background of each were brought to the open, argued, analyzed and dished out to the eagerly listening neighborhood. Within twenty minutes or so, everybody had learned the personal secrets of both protagonists. To prevent the quarrel from becoming any worse; the older male members of Looban intervened. They had to stop what otherwise would have been, as observers predicted, a street brawl between the two and their respective' families.

Often, the social relations taking place in the tianggi are similar to those taking place in the street. In front of most stores are benches strategically constructed for customers to sit on any time of the day) These benches serve a purpose because, as Aling Tacia, another store-owner observed, "When people sit down to rest or to gossip, they will soon buy something either to eat, drink, or nibble at as they socialize." Carved into the benches are checkerboards known locally as damahan. This seems to be a sport exclusively for men. The players usually hang around the whole day. As the game begins, kibitzers start gathering around. And sometimes, as expected, this either leads to verbal tussle, or, if heated arguments are not settled, to fist fights.

As one of the channels of neighborhood communication, the tianggi is a crucial source of information. Here people congregate to share each other's company - in a hearty laugh, in an argument, ill sympathy or in confiding troubles. Some people spend a good portion of their day bantering with local wits or simply sitting around idly and making comments about passers-by. Sometimes they buy something before leaving; at other times they do not. It can he said, in any case, that business transactions in the corner store are often treated as a kind of afterthought, a social obligation to the owner for having allowed one to stay longer than necessary.

Personal connections are seized upon to attract customers. Such favors as extending credit, catering to someone's particular tastes or hanging pictures of favorite movie stars are ways of converting new buyers into regular customers. However, the easiest and most common competitive device is to grant customers the privilege to make purchases on credit. A customer granted such a privilege becomes known as a suki.

Suki relationship is set in motion when patronage between, the tianggi owner and customer is established. It may be initiated by repeated purchases from the tianggi by the customer, until his name, face, and domicile are known to the owner. Interactions, between them involve exchange of information about each other. Older people are asked about their health, their children or grandchildren, and other familiar events in the neighborhood. Other customers are asked about the length of their residence in Looban. Housewives are flattered by the same procedure of solicitousness. Young boys and girls are allowed to hang around in front of, and sometimes inside, the store. And if all the necessary data concerning the customer are known, he may be allowed access into some private secrets.

Similarly, the customers also study the reactions of the owner. If she is personable, warm, and friendly, they frequent her store. On the other hand, if she is nasty (masungit) her store is avoided. This mixture of informality and business has become so stable in the area that the relationship between buyers and sellers is characterized by mutual trust, reciprocal obligations, and, in many cases, extremely personalized service. As a strategy of maximizing sales through patronage, suki relations are established gradually, through goodwill and economic transactions. Thus, a stranger, by maintaining steady patronage of the tianggi, becomes initially a "customer," then a "friend," and finally, a suki.

The suki relationship demands personal trust, loyalty, and the meeting of obligations. These demands are reciprocal. Eventually, in many cases, the suki relationship transcends the purely economic motive and becomes ritualized in kinship terms, the compadrazgo system. This is accomplished when either the customer or the store-owner becomes a sponsor to the baptism or marriage of either one's child. Before this relationship is established however, the prospects in terms of gains to be derived from it is implicitly evaluated.

The dominant economic features of the suki relationship are patronage and credit. To become a suki, the customer has to be a regular buyer first. Regularity is the way to the creation of favorable atmosphere that will lead to the establishment of suki ties. This is on the part of the customer. On the part of the sari-sari or tianggi owner, it is the ability to extend credit and to be easy in the demands for payment. In any case, both the customer and the seller profit from the suki relationship and transaction. For the seller, the relationship insures him a regular outlet and a rapid turnover of goods. For the customer, the relationship enables him to meet his needs even during fiscal exigencies. It is through the extensions of credit that the suki relationship is strengthened and the regularity of patronage maintained.

Socially the term "suki" encompasses both the patron and the customer. Each one uses it to address the other. On the basis of available data, the term is seen purely in economic context. The obligation incurred once the suki relationship is established however involves non-economic considerations. For example, each one is expected to speak well of the other. If possible, it is implicitly assumed that, as a customer, a suki will recommend the suki's (seller) store to others in the neighborhood. He should not, in any way possible, buy from or patronize any other store, except when the suki himself so suggests. Such recommendations are made by the storekeeper when he does not have the items that the buyer needs for the moment.

As a seller, the suki is, by custom, not supposed to take advantage of the customer. He is not expected to overprice his items when a suki is buying; in fact, it is expected that he lowers his price. He may mark up but not so much as to earn a big profit as to recover the cost of investment and to pay for the labor. In return, the suki customer is implicitly not supposed to haggle or tawad. In other words, the economic aspect of the entire transaction becomes only a means of achieving social relations in an atmosphere of satisfactory gains for both the seller and the buyer. This particularized way of doing business however makes commerce with strangers somewhat awkward - an odd transaction.

RESTAURANT(KAINAN)

The other place where most Looban adults congregate is the neighborhood kainan or restaurant. There are four such establishments in the vicinity. The one closest to the main street outside Looban proper is the busiest. A number of Looban girls work there. The restaurant opens at 6:00 a.m. (sometimes earlier) and closes at 1:00 a.m. the following day. Some drivers eat their breakfast there. By 7:00 a.m., a group of policemen on foot patrol normally comes in for coffee. They often hold their briefing inside and sometimes their drill formation in front of the eatery. Then they proceed to their respective beats. It has been rumored that they do not pay for their meals but in return, they provide protection to the establishment. No member of any local gang hangs around the place.

Toward the eastern side of Looban is another restaurant. It is smaller than the one just described. It is controlled by the OXO gang but many informants say that it also enjoys protection from the police. The wife of the owner, most Looban residents say, is having an affair with one of the policemen. The husband, it is further rumored, knows about the affair but "turns his face the other way" because he runs a bawdy house in one of the sections of the district. This establishment, too, is said to have "political and police protection." Two of the girls working in the restaurant admit that their boyfriends are members of the police force. This may explain why even the notorious Bahala Na boys do not bother the place.

Another restaurant, the New Moon, located near the western side of the neighborhood, is said to be under the protection (hawak) of the Bahala Na gang. Every evening, members of the gang congregate nearby. They see to it, however, that they do not stay very close to the place, otherwise they may scare prospective customers away. The owner pays the gang a certain amount of money plus free meals every day.

The most notorious bar-restaurant, according to the residents, is located at the northeast side of the neighborhood. It is said to be under the protection of a political ward-leader of a "big" City Hall politician. This ward leader is said to be in connivance with the Sigue-Sigue Commandos. Everybody in Looban knows that this bar-restaurant called D'Place, is a front for prostitution. In the house next to the eating place are rooms where customers who are known to the management can have liaison with prostitutes. The dining area and the bar are well-kept and air-conditioned. This joint is frequented by businessmen and city workers even at noontime and in the evening, it is usually "full-house."

BARS

The most popular establishments found close to Looban are the bars. These places function as effective channels of communication. Almost any sort of information about Looban can be gathered from anyone of the twenty bars operating in the area. Most bar girls reside in Looban; so do the waiters and bouncers.

Most bars or cocktail lounges, as others call them, have the same lay-out. There is a main section where drinks are served. It is generally narrow and consists of cubicles which can accommodate only two persons - the hostess and the customer. The lights are subdued and the place is almost dark. In some bars the drinks are served on tables conveniently placed close to each other in the open space. A jukebox is placed near the entrance where the cashier sits before a cash register. There is a little space near the counter where the bartender attends to the needs of the customers. In some bars, there is a space allotted for dancing.

Bar frequenters do not usually go there to dance. They stop for a drink and to have "happy-happy" - meaning to enjoy the company of the bar girls, which involves occasional necking and petting. Although management does not as a rule permit it, a liaison may be consummated depending on the agreement between the customer and the bar girl. "Nasa babae na yan (It's up to the girl)," is the usual reply of the floor manager when asked about the possibility of having sexual intercourse with any of the girls. Actually, the management can pressure the girl to have sex with the best paying customer. And ordinarily, it only takes a persuasive customer to consummate sexual relations with the girl. The management generally does not object provided this is discreetly done outside the joint. However, some girls claim that "nakakayari din sa upuan (it can be done inside the cubicle)."

In exchange for her "favors" the girl often asks if she "can order drinks." A refusal would place the customer in an embarrassing situation. If he allows her, then the evening starts to be an expensive one. The price of lady's drinks is often twice that of the ordinary order. And as she induces the man to drink some more, at the same time allowing him to hold her hands, caress her, or kiss her on the cheeks, the girl also keeps ordering her own drinks. To avoid getting drunk, the girl generally takes only water or soft drinks. But the charges on the chits are for hard liquor like martini or lady's drink. Some customers are said to spend over a hundred. pesos within only a few hours.

Most bars in Looban enjoy the protection of the local policemen, some politicians, and, as informants add, other law-enforcement agents.

THE BARBERSHOP (PAGUPITAN)

The local name for barbershops is pagupitan, derived from the term gupit, meaning to cut. It is also popularly known as barberya. There are four barbershops in Looban, one of which is located right at the heart of the neighborhood and close to our residence during the fieldwork. These establishments open at seven in the morning and close at about mid-night.

The barbershop is another well-known source and channel of information. People gather there daily. They are seldom empty of customers or bystanders who drop in to gossip, makibalita or play dama.

Most barbers live in neighborhoods close to Looban. Ten reside within the neighborhood itself. Almost everyone in Looban knows all the barbers just as they know by name most of the residents in the neighborhood. Information about local events are transmitted either by the customer while he is having his hair cut or by the barber himself as he does his job.

In many ways, the barbershops may be considered collectively as one of the important institutions in Looban where the traffic of information flows from the neighborhood to the larger society and vice-versa.

CONCLUSION

From what we have just described, it is clear that the social environment of Looban includes the major ecological units of the neighborhood - the streets, the tianggi, the barbershops, the restaurants and the bars. In these places, Looban norms and values are defined, developed, modified, or discarded. These points of references establish, reinforce, and stabilize existing values. They are therefore key points in appraising Looban life style since they provide the proper stimuli for coping with the pressures of everyday life. Anyone who enters into the neighborhood to become a resident also enters into a social world already established in the past, shared by almost all residents, and embodied in 'the existing beliefs, attitudes, and values of the people. The places mentioned above are the bridges through which one can be linked into the inner world of Looban and through which this inner world can be known, in all its complexity and dynamism.

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© Viv Grigg & Urban Leadership Foundationand other materials © by various contributors & Urban Leadership Foundation,  for The Encarnacao Training Commission.  Last modified: July 2010