As seen from the eyes of a Filipino

It was about two years ago when I met artist-couturier Ronnie Alejandro, my schoolmate at the old Ateneo de Manila, at the lobby of EDSA Shangri-La Hotel. He was in Manila to launch a book about Pinoys in New York City, a copy of which he kindly gave to me. My Ateneo schoolmates and I seldom have the chance to meet Ronnie because he spends most of his time in New York, a place where he had been staying for the past so many decades.

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I got hold of Ronnie Alejandro’s first-hand account of what happened to the World Trade Center last September 11, through the courtesy of lawyer Braulio Tansinsin, another Ateneo classmate. Despite the lapse of almost two months, Ronnie’s story of what happened ñ plus his recollection of the golden days of the WTC ñ is interesting, mainly because it includes names of Filipinos, all of them equally well-known, who dropped by and enjoyed the splendor of the World Trade Center.

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Here is the WTC story of September 11, as told by a Filipino:

I just finished talking over the phone with Eva Florentino that Tuesday morning about revising our book, "PINOYWORKERS: THE FILIPINO AMERICANS IN THE METROPOLITAN NEW YORK AREA", and was about to leave for the World Trade Center to be of the first in line to purchase Broadway tickets for guests from Manila at the TKTS booth at the World Trade Center.

As I was going out of my apartment door, the phone rung and Maria Coburn called and discussed at length our luncheon the day before at the Brazilian restaurant-of-the-moment Churrascaria Plantation for Johnny Valdez of Johnny Air Cargo who was scheduled to leave for Tuesday evening for Manila.

We were interrupted by a call from my cousin Fritz Pablo, the fashion designer/couturier, who told me that the World Trade Center is burning and to turn my TV on. True, I saw on NYI Channel that the World Trade Center was on fire! I paused for a moment and thought: What if I was at the right time and the wrong place?

What If Eva, Marya and Fritz did not call me? What if I went early to the World Trade Center for those discounted tickets and waited for the box office to open while leisurely reading my dailies just to be first in line of the queue?

I could have lost my life in this abominable terror attack – and, hopefully, be cremated and my ashes scattered in th Hudson and Pasig Rivers as written in my will!

As I always reminded myself if somebody dies, "If it is your time, it is your time ñ whether riding in the subway, biking around Manhattan or in your own bedroom watching television."

I always remember our later theology teacher at the Ateneo, Fr. Lino Banayad, who would always remind us, "You must always be ready to meet your Creator."

And my friend Bobby Caballero would always remind me, "You can’t take it with you!"

They never said just true words.

After watching what’s happening on TV, I immediately grabbed my bag with my video camcorder, digitaland point-and-shoot cameras and biked towards the World Trade Center’s direction.

All roads were already blocked by policemen and I have to cross town towards the West Side Highway for a better view.

I have been living in Greenwich Village in downtown Manhattan which is within a quarter of a mile radius from WTC or about 20 short blocks. I could not pass through with the cordon sanitaire even when I showed my press card. I took photos on West Broadway in Soho, in the crowded Avenues of the Americas in West Side Highway near the Hudson River.

Thousands of people were walking north towards me from downtown. I could see their sad and devastated faces ñ tourists, Wallstreeters, students, children, cooks in their uniforms, among others. All main avenues were closed and the cacophony of sirens from ambulances, fire trucks and police cars were reverberating in the atmosphere.

I was able to witness the second building collapse with deafening shouts from spectators on Christopher Street. Clouds engulfed the scene which I could see from where I was standing.

Gone are the famous twin towers of the World Trade Center.

I remember when I first arrived in the Big Apple 31 years ago as a dance scholar and briefly stayed with my uncle’s family on Governors’ Island a the tip of Manhattan.

My uncle used to drive his wife to work for a telephone company beside the still unfinished edificesÖ And my uncle would talk with pride about the emerging complex named World Trade Center.

That was in 1969.

I have seen WTC grow like a tree in the skyline of Manhattan, floor by floor, during my more than three decades of continuously living in Manhattan.

It became a part of the Big Apple’s vista ñ a landmark of distinction.

Going uptown with my bike, I always see the Empire State Building (Also visible from matchbox apartment’s window) and returning hometown Fifth Avenue, there was the World Trade Center in its splendid grandeur!

I never failed to bring friends and relatives to visit the WTC – sometimes to watch a panoramic view of New Jersey and the different boroughs of New York City. I remember my first dinner with ballerina Maniya Barredo at the famous Windows in the World where in the evening, the view is just that fabulous.

I have attended several social functions there and even watched the Philippine Dance Company of New York performe at the Center’s Plaza. I have queued several times for Broadway there.

I have visited friends there like knowledgeable Manny Castañeda who never failed to inform me of Filipinos in Europe. Ramon de Luna and Bubut Singh work near the World Trade Center and chanteuse Carmen Pateña and Dr. Tony Ayuyao live a stone’s throw away from WTC at Battery Park City.

I was just at WTC two weeks ago for lunch with Manny Castañeda and coincidentally met former Filipina model Gigi Ogtong at an Italian restaurant at the Concourse Level. I promised Manny that we should try other new restaurants there.

I wonder what happened to them!

I had frequent rendezvous with classmates and lovers in its Lobby as well as window shop there. I sometimes took the Path train there to visit friends across the Hudson River.

I was at the Rio Carnival in Ipanema when I heard of the tragic terror attack of the WTC in February of 1993.

There were many casualties but the spirit of New Yorkers of sharing and helping one another were very evident during the crisis.

Volunteers to work as rescue and emergency arrived to help. Doctors and nurses were among them. Health care worker and anesthetist miles Perlas has not slept for two nights during the volunteer work and so with others from St. Claire in Manhattan and as far as Our Lady of Mercy and St. Agnes in the Bronx.

Since I live downtown Manhattan a walking distance from the WTC, many friends and relatives have called and emailed me from Spain, France, Malaysia, The Philippines and allover America checking if I am Alright. My friend Ces Drilon called me from Manila and wanted to do a phone interview for her "Point Blank"TV show.

Yes, I am OK. The sleepless nights watching TV on this warzone gave me migraine headaches. I am so touched by their concern and thoughtfulness!

As the saying goes "Life must go on!

New Yorkers have shown their true color ñ their outpouring of kindness, strength, resiliency, compassion and generosity make them citizens of the world.

For days Lower Manhattan, the heart of American commerce, was like a ghost town. Shops, restaurants, offices and schools were closed. I could hear sirens day and night from my apartment window since I live near St. Vincent’s Hospital where most of the victims were treated.

Now, the World Trade Center is gone ñ banished in a clear September morning!

What a tragedy! These two symbols of American might ñ these towering monuments of the global city, the capital of the world!

America is vulnerable!

Thoughts For Today:

Love never grows when it is secretly kept in our hearts.
Love will find its fulfillment when it finds its way
To the heart of the person destined to keep it.

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Prayer is the key to open the day
And the key to lock the night.
Use it Always.

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My e-mail address [email protected]