Update #5 February 24: Protests in Makati

Well, this is the first day I have every been afraid since I've been in the Philippines (crossingstreets doesn't count). Typically the sight of all the security guards and machine guns is pretty reassuring and makes me feel safe. Today, however, it was the opposite.

In preparation for my trial period of bed rest, I was going to do a quick shop at Market! Market to stock groceries in the house for the weekend. Boy did I pick a bad day. I should have figured just by my inability to catch a cab right outside of our apartment that I should not go shopping. Instead, I thought I'd just wander down to the main intersection of Ayala and Paseo de Roxas to catch a cab. It was then that I realized that something was up. At first, I just thought it was a festival of some sort that wasn't well advertised. Seeing as one night on our way to dinner, Dave and I came across a musical festival in the park right outside our apartment and neither of us had seen a flyer about it. My first impression seemed right as I then saw a bunch of reporters and TV vehicles and heard singing. Sadly, it wasn't a festival. It was a protest.

It seemed like all of a sudden I was surrounded by people and surrounded by guns and police. After the earlier crushing at a TV station for a game show, I knew that the safest place would be away from the crowds. So I quickly (as quickly as possible seeing as I was supposed to have limited activity) tried to get away. Unfortunately, in the Philippines they have gates on both sides of the street as a way to stop jaywalkers so I wasn't able to quickly cross the street. Then I found out that the underground street passes (that let you cross major intersections) were also closed. And more people were coming around me. I just tried to get away by going up streets that looked quieter all the while trying to catch a cab. I finally got a cab but we were only able to go about 2-3 blocks before all of the streets were closed. Then I noticed a bunch of ripped up white tickets coming down from the sky. I had no idea what they were for and where they were coming from, all I knew was that it wasn't good. Luckily I could see Dave's work building and I could figure out a way to get home from there. Dave's work is also in the same building as the Canadian embassy so I thought if things got worse, I'd just hide out there. Luckily though, it looked like I had bypassed the worst of it, and I took back streets to get back home.

I can't admit to knowing much about what they were protesting, besides the fact that they want to overthrow the President and it had something to do with her not allowing celebrations for the revolution. But I also heard that there were two groups of protesters and the police were trying to keep the two groups separate. Apparently there were also a lot of politicians watching the crowd and some looked to be pretty happy to see what was going on.