MANILA is a rather very iconic place in the Philippines.

If one was to ask another about

Philippines, often, if not always, the person being asked would either think of the city, or even
bring up about it. Manila is the famous metropolitan of the Philippines, commonly the first
destination of every tourist. The city is known to be a Filipino's edition of the cross-cultural
immersion, ranging from the mixed cultural cuisine that could be found, such as in restaurants
located at the Bonifacio Global City, namely Mendokoro Ramen, and Texas at the UPTown
Center. Assure from the typical notion of what the city is taken for, Manila is essentially the
capital of the country, giving it both a dear place to most, if not all, Filipinos' hearts, and a
common ground to determine the overall status of the country itself. The former could be seen in
the song – MANILA – composed and published by the country's very own popular 70s band The
Hotdogs, and the latter can be found in the poem, of the similar name, Manila, written by Fr
Frederico Licsi Espina Jr.

Initially, the song entitled Manila essentially expr sees the visceral love of the artists' love for
Manila, of which, the lead singer, expresses the constant going back to the country in the lyrics:
Manila, Manila, I coming back to Manila. In proceeding lyrics, that were sang in the native
language of Filipino, the band of The Hotdogs express that they have left the country a number
of times, going elsewhere, but, as they have also accentuated in the subsequent lyrics, they have
sang that [Manila] is just like a woman who is hard to forget, and that it [Manila] will always be
the one they will be coming back home to. In other sections of the song, it is expressed that
Manila has always been looked for, that the band loves its noise, its jeeps – of which was of
pinnacle cultural identity of the Philippines at that time – that fly past them, and all the women
who are rather dashing. The song essentially explains to its listeners that: there is no place like
Manila, no matter where a Filipino goes, Manila will always be their home.

Espina Jr. on the other hand does argue, somewhat, with the lyrics expressed in the song of
The Hotdogs. In his poem entitled Manila, Espina Jr. essentially metaphorically represents the
disappointing relentless progression that often fluctuates but never prevails, of the city of Manila.
The final couplet of the poem goes respectively:

With life. Yes. This city is a pair of claws

Crabbing, creeping with all its tragic flaws

Here, Espina Jr. Uses the iconic crab as a symbol to represent that “relentless progression that
often fluctuates but never prevails' in the aforementioned description about Manila. This simply
emphasises the relationship he finds between the nature of a crab, with the rather static and
unprogressive climb of the city, during his time. Majority of species of crabs, basically creep
sideways, with no prevailing success often time, in covering distances at an immediate or rather,
time bound frame. Similarly, during Espina Jr's life in the Philippines, he has realised the
struggle for development, of Manila, to be like the unsuccessful pursuit of a crab. He [Espina Jr.]
Made this comment due to the very evident static status of the country, Manila in particular, once
he has returned home to the country. In respect to context of history, the Philippines has
undergone three colonising bodies: the Spaniards, the Americans, and the Japanese. Yet, upon
reclaimed freedom from all their conquerors, the Philippines still meets a barely redeemed
progress. Edina Jr. saw Manila only to try and climb to the top of modernity at that time, but only
plummet back to the bowels of a beginning, similarly to how a Filipino is stereotyped to have a
crab mentality which, in a nutshell, means that an average Filipino would pull someone down
just to get to the top. He found that very reminiscent in his first-hand experience of returning to
the country.

Now, both pieces portray their own representative opinion towards such an iconic place in
the country. One essentially gears toward an optimistic resolution, whilst the other falls on the
opposite end of the scale. The Hotdogs display nationalism, their essential love and favour for
their country over another. Espina Jr. on the other hand expresses mere disappointment in his
nation's inability to prove themselves as better than what their colonisers have thought of them
as. This is where both writers differ in opinions towards Manila. The Hotdogs refer to the
metropolis as a sense of identity, a piece of their identity to be more specific. A segment of their
lyric narrates:

I’ve walked the streets of San Francisco

I've tried the rides of Disneyland

Dated a million girls from Sydney

Somehow I feel like I don’t belong

Here it can be derived that the writers of the song express this unified, visceral essence that
Manila is a part of them, reminiscent of the concept of nationalism, they have explicitly shown
their listeners that Manila is them, and San Francisco, Disneyland, and even Sydney, are not
them. This true for the reason that they just simply do not find any other place, to compare to
Manila. Ultimately concluding a note on their evident nationalism through their love for Manila.

Otherwise, Espina Jr. Portrays, rather not a lack of nationalism, but simply disappointment in
specific. For once, the Philippines has just been freed from its colonisers, yet its people are
incapable of obtaining successive and constant progression in their society. A portion of his own
goes:

She bears the braces of her former homes

The shells of foreign cultures and the slime

———

They mock her as she crawls upon the sand,

The sidewise movement of the crab

Which Thomas saw in a desserted strand

Here we can see that the writer of the poem clearly does not display a lack of nationalism, but
rather he merely expresses that particular distaste in the lack of constant progression he would
have expected of his own nation, given that their era of being under colonisation has already
ended.

On another note, both pieces do provide a similarity. That is, that both pieces particularly
describe their own respectively representative portrayal of a very symbolic city in the
Philippines's identity overall. Indeed, both present their own ideas that inevitably condltradicted
each other, but that is the power of writing in itself. The Hotdogs simply wanted to display their
own nationalism through the use of constructing a message that embodied the essence of Manila
in their hearts. Whereas for Espina Jr., He did not compose the poem simply to belittle his
nation, but to serve as a wake up call to his peopl; that in light of the colonisers' departure, they
[the Filipinos] themselves must build their own empire – he did this through a rather satirical
approach which eventually led to a well-thought out emphasis on what he really intended for.