Lola Is Tired of Loud, Speeding Motorcycles

Excessively loud and dangerously speeding motorcycles are a nuisance throughout the Philippines. One old lady decided she has had enough. 

https://mb.com.ph/2024/3/17/septuagenarian-in-ilocos-norte-apologizes-for-throwing-stick-at-rider

A septuagenarian who went viral on social media for throwing wood on the driver of a fast-moving and noisy motorcycle in front of her house in Barangay Bulala here on Wednesday morning, March 6, has apologized to the public for her actions.

Renie Leaño, 74, a former teacher and an Overseas Filipino Worker (OFW), drew public attention after a surveillance footage posted on social media showed her throwing a piece of wood to a fast-moving motorcycle in front of her house.

The motorcycle rider, approximately in his mid to late 40s, returned and confronted Leaño who returned to her house but he followed her and bumped her, causing her to fall down.

The motorcycle rider sped off and Leaño slowly stood up and cursed at him in the native dialect Ilocano.

Surveillance footage later showed Leaño talking to another man, apparently complaining about the noise generated by passing motorcycles.

She later on was enraged by more passing motorcycles, and one rider whom she had said something stopped to confront her.

The man picked a stone which he threw at Leaño who avoided the projectile that landed in her house. Leaño was peeved and heard cursing while the man moved away.  

 

Some neighbors stepped in to diffuse the situation but Leaño continued to rant as more neighbors appeared. Moments later, she went inside her house.

She went out again and seemed to have not yet calmed down.    

People have lodged a complaint with barangay officials over Leaño’s actions.

Leaño said her actions were a reminder to speeding motorists to slow down when passing in front of her house as their noisy driving disturbed her and that it was not her intention to hurt them.

She said that she had been bringing up the matter to barangay officials since 2016 or a year upon returning to the country in 2015. 

Leaño said that she requested barangay officials to construct a hump on the road or put up a sign reminding motorists to slow down in front of her house. These, she said, were also for the safety of motorists.

She said that barangay officials have done nothing on her requests, prompting her to act on her own to address her concerns.

Leaño vowed to stop throwing firewood at passing motorists.

Barangay officials are consulting with the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) for appropriate solution to Leaño’s concerns. 

For eight years this lady has been bringing her concerns about loud and speeding motorcycles to the barangay. But they have done nothing. 

So, she took the matter into her own hands by throwing a piece of wood at and confronting loud speeding riders. Now, she is the one apologizing. Strangely, her own the neighbors have turned against her by filing complaints over her actions. It seems they are not concerned about loud speeding motorcyclists in their neighborhood.  

But others in this nation are concerned. In 2016 Senator Win Gatchalian introduced a bill penalizing drivers who use modified mufflers which increase noise. This bill was not passed into law and it was reintroduced in 2022. 

http://legacy.senate.gov.ph/lisdata/3913835576!.pdf

With the worsening traffic in Metro Manila , the concomitant noise emitted by motor vehicles just adds to the ordeal that our citizens has to go through every day. The steady increase of our population continues to trigger the environmental hazards of pollution, sad to say that the plague of "noise pollution" has never had any definite national policy nor regulation for control. Lumped in the general concept of air pollution, the dangers of noise pollution have been ignored or underestimated.

A World Health Organization (WHO) report has suggested that noise defined as an "unwanted sound" can affect human health and well-being, including annoyance reaction, sleep disturbance. Interference with communication, performance effects, and effects on social behavior. It further states that exposure to noise levels at or above 80 decibels has been medically proven to cause permanent hearing loss. This exposure to noise has also been associated with changes in blood pressure, other cardiovascular changes, problems with the digestive system and general fatigue.

While this bill is not law the City of Manila did enact a noise ordinance regarding mufflers in 2021.

https://manila.gov.ph/look-yorme-signed-into-law-ordinance-no-8772-regulating-the-use-of-modified-muffler-exhaust-pipe-and-similar-devices-on-all-types-of-motor-vehicles/

The point is, Renie Leaño's neighbors not withstanding, people do not like noise. The problem is that it is not so easy to file a complaint and when one is filed it takes a miracle for it to be acted upon. Renie has been complaining to the barangay for eight year to no avail until she took matters into her own hands. Now local officials are working with the DILG to address her concerns. 

So, good on her for drawing attention to this issue. Sometimes that is what it takes. 

Not A Relaxing Stroll Through the Park

"Walking through the park just the other day, baby. What do you, what do you think I saw?" More like, what do you I think I heard? It sure wasn't the lilting keyboard riff of Misty Mountain Hop. Instead it was the blaring, loud cacophony of radio commercials. Not songs, just commercials. All emanating from the myriad speakers scattered throughout the park.

Not the greatest picture. It's something that needs hearing more than seeing anyway. Besides even in real life the speakers and pole sort of blend into the background. This is not the first time I have traversed this park only to be met with the annoying sound of the radio. But this time I decided to find the source. Here it is:

Believe me when I asked the lady at the desk why they are blasting loud radio commercials instead of something quieter and more suitable to a park she had no idea what I was talking about. I was tempted to smash that system to bits but that would have only exacerbated all my problems. The way this is set up I find quite mind boggling. There are about twenty poles with speakers scattered throughout out the park. Yet somehow they all have wires that lead underground and back to the stereo in this office. That's a lot of work and for what? So people can be annoyed by crummy commercials and boring, redundant pop songs they have heard a million times before! I don't know about you but I despise Celine Dion even more when I hear her tinny voice blasting through tiny speakers.

The strange thing is no one seems to care. There were plenty of people sitting on benches chatting, playing checkers, or just hanging out.  Here is one lady who set up shop and was waiting for customers. 

There are always several mani/pedicurists plying their trade in this park. Once I was walking through and some lady ran up to me saying "Sir, Sir!" I thought she was going to ask if I wanted a mani/pedicure but instead she asked something else I will not repeat here.

Anyway, this park sucks. It's not pretty to look at it and even if it was you couldn't relax here because the radio is playing loudly all day.

Blaring Election Truck Speakers

If you think those trucks blasting out popular songs with altered lyrics all about a candidate are annoying then you ain't seen nothing yet. Check out this behemoth!

Just look at that huge stack of speakers! When I walked by I could feel my whole being rattle. What is the point of that? This is not the only candidate using a wall of speakers to get your vote.

Again what is the point?  I hope the point is that as this was a festival these guys are not driving around every day blaring music from these speakers but they are just being festive. Somehow I doubt it.

Remember BOOM BOOM BOOM to BOOM BOOM BOOM vote for BOOM BOOM BOOM me!

Several Huge Stacks of Speakers

On a drive into the local barangay to print some documents I saw huge several huge stacks of speakers each blaring different music at different levels. 

My first thought was it was a pretty odd sight to see being that there is no fiesta and the stacks are all separated at a good distance from each other. No one was dancing. No one appeared to be in a party mood. What could possibly be the point then? Just makes things more noisy. But it turns out there was a fiesta happening. Usually the speakers are set up in the public gym because that is where all the activity takes place. Why they were set up in the street at intervals I have no idea.

I did not consider it at the time but on the way home it suddenly occurred to me that this must be the source of the loud boom-boom-boom I had been hearing all weekend. In the first set of speakers there is a part painted green and in person they looked like missiles. Very fitting since these speakers are calculated to blast noise straight through the air and into your ear thus destroying any peace and quiet you were enjoying.

A Typical Sunday Morning In My Neighbourhood

Who am I kidding?  This is a typical morning practically every day in my neighbourhood. This guy has his car speakers blasting so loud I can hear it half a block away.  I can feel the boom-boom-boom rattling through the air.

A typical morning in the Philippines is very, very noisy with crowing roosters, barking dogs, and loud bass all competing for who can be the loudest. It's also a bit stinky with people lighting fires to either cook or dispose of garbage and leaves.

Ridiculous.

This video was taken at 6:11am on Sunday morning. 

A Very Loud Fiesta

Filipinos often boast that the Philippines can be like Singapore. What a joke. The Philippines will NEVER be like Singapore. Things holding back the Philippines from becoming like Singapore include not only the high murder rate, 36 a day, but also quality of life issues like burning trash, roaming dogs, and most importantly of all the Filipino penchant for loud noise. In Singapore you will never hear an all night party with the bass so loud you cannot sleep.  It just won't happen.  But in the Philippines it happens all the time.  

If you think the Philippines is a lovely and quiet place to live or retire think again.  It is not. It is very, very, very noisy.

Noise: Squatters Village

Previously I have written about loud church noise and loud barangay fiesta noise but today I want to tell you about something a little more sinister:

Loud bass-heavy music blasting out of stacks of speakers in the yard of some poor shanty in a squatters village.

What's up with this anyway?  How can these poor people afford these sound systems?  And why are they sitting around listening to loud bass-heavy music?  Do they really find BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM-BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM to be relaxing? Who listens to techno outside of the club?

Karaoke and awful pop music is very popular in the Philippines it's a wonder they don't listen to that.

I think I know the answer why. The Philippines at heart is a deeply pagan nation which worships idols and is superstitious beyond many other peoples.  Despite the Spanish Catholics sowing their religion the Filipinos never became Christians.  They simply appropriated the trappings of Roman Catholicism and blended it with their native animistic religions.

We can see this with Sinulog which is supposed to be a religious festival where they worship the idol Santo Niño but it's really a dance festival!  They are dancing to loud music just like they did before they were civilised and just like the tribes in the mountains of northern Luzon do to this day.

So when the Filipino turns up the bass loud enough that it can be heard miles away its more than just loud music.  The loud music touches the deepest religious impulses in the Filipino psyche.  It fires up the collective unconscious allowing him to participate in the memories of his ancestors who danced naked around bonfires to the sound of loud drumming before the hunt or after the hunt or when propitiating the gods.

Or maybe they are just rude people who don't care about the well-being of their neighbours and who cannot comprehend the consequences of their actions.  Who wants to hear loud bass all day?  But no one complains and that just compounds the problem.  If enough people complained and said turn it down then it might just get turned down.

And if they still refuse to listen?  Well just go on over there and turn it down yourself.

Noise: Fiestas

Filipinos love to party.  They love to party all day and all night.  Every city has an annual fiesta.  Every barangay within the city has an annual fiesta.  Every purok within the barangay has an annual fiesta.  Every neighbourhood and subdivision within the barangay and purok has an annual fiesta.  Besides these annual fiestas there are also other fiestas which happen on holidays or other special occasions like if someone wants to rent the barangay hall for a wedding or birthday party.

Around 3pm - 5pm you might hear, in the distance, the sound of very loud bass. 

BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM-BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM-BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM-BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM-BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM!!!!!

This will jar you right out of whatever you were doing. Of course its just someone inconsiderate person playing loud music. Right? WRONG!  It's a fiesta.  And this fiesta will not stop until six in the morning.  

All night                   and                     All day

This monster right here is blaring bass and techno so loud that it can be heard 3 miles away.  And it's going all day and all night long.  Some Filipinos are so rude they will party all day and all night all the while making sure anyone miles away trying to get a good nights sleep will not be able to do so.

But it's all over at 6 am so you can get a good nights sleep during the day and then the next night everything will be back to norm....

BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM-BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM-BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM-BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM!!!!!!

Not again!!!???

Yes.  Again.  For three days usually. Starting Thursday night, going on Friday night, and finishing up early on Sunday morning.

Of course if it's a barangay fiesta you can count on it lasting a whole seven days.  Seven days of BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM day and night.  And if you talk to the barangay captain and ask him to turn it down because it can be heard miles away at your house and you can't sleep, he will just laugh at you and say, "No one here is complaining about loud noise. How can you even be hearing it at your house if these people can't even hear any loud noise?"

Keep up the good work guys!  No one wants to sleep anyway. 

This is What Happens When You Politely Ask Your Neighbour to Turn Down Their Karaoke

Today a neighbour celebrated his 60th birthday. By 9pm the party had been going on for 12 hours. I was headed to slumberland except for the loud music barring my entrance.  So I walked over to my neighbours house and politely asked them to turn down their karaoke so I could get some sleep.

Thirty minutes later this happens:

A loud motorcycle, a thrown bottle, and a kick at the gate to the house.  I got to the window just in time to see two men speed off.  I couldn't make out who they were but I knew where they came from.

Despite the people at the party admitting the thrown bottle came from them the police could do nothing because I could not identify the assailants.  But the police did admonish them to turn down their karaoke because they had received other complaints.

So this is where politeness gets you in the Philippines. 

Nowhere.

Noise: Garbage Trucks

Twice a week, between 6am and 8am, the garbage truck comes through the neighbourhood. With such frequency and regularity there is no reason anyone should be burning trash.  Fill up a bag, or a few bags, twice a week and get them ready.  The garbage men are even nice enough to let everyone know when they have arrived by blaring the song "Lambada" as they drive up and down each street. This is the ONLY song they play. Over and over and over and over and over and over.  Once they did play the radio but then they put "Lambada" back on.  This is a new development occurring only since the city purchased modern garbage trucks.  Before they would play chimes like an ice cream truck and during the Christmas season they would play Christmas songs.  Well, ONE Christmas song.  Why do they insist on repeating one song?

When the driver was asked why he continually repeats the same song he replied that it was a Mp3 and the boss had only downloaded one song. That's Filipino logic for you.  One high capacity USB drive but only one Mp3.

See the loudspeaker? 

This song "Lambada" is the most annoying piece of music ever written.  It's dangerous to write about it because just thinking of it gets the tune stuck in your head. The Filipinos like this song so much that even the back-up warning beeping sounds of Jeepnies and delivery trucks have been converted to play this song in an even more annoying 8-bit chiptune version. Why do they love this song so much?  It's mindless, annoying, and sticks in your head all day once you hear it.  Kind of like a Filipino.

Look at this guy standing right on the edge.  He could fall in and get crushed.  But when did a Filipino ever care about safety???

Noise: Churches

Everything in the Philippines is loud.  Even the churches.  The Filipino knows nothing about sacred silence.  Everything he does, even the most solemn religious services, are celebrated with loud noise rather than silent prayer and meditation.

This church does not have a building.  They meet at a basketball court.  At 7am they start playing a CD of church bells through a sound system that is hooked up to a loudspeaker which broadcasts this noise all over the countryside.  It can be heard for almost two miles away.  

For nine mornings before Christmas the Filipinos gather together to sing carols, pray to the saints, and hear a sermon which is usually a political tirade and has nothing to do with Baby Jesus.  This too is broadcast all over the countryside starting at 3am and not finishing until 6am.  Instead of a peaceful sleep you are woken suddenly by the warbling voice of a priest singing "Feliz Navidad" and ranting against the government. And there's no road back to dreamland. Even in your own home you aren't safe from Roman Catholic superstition.

Every church building here has a huge loudspeaker on the top of the building or outside somewhere so that the entire surrounding area can hear their devotions.  They broadcast the entire service.  The singing, the preaching, everything. And it's all garbled.  What's being broadcast isn't even intelligible.  

The Filipino love of noise runs deep. Very deep. Soul deep. He cannot keep quiet for a second.  There is so much noise in this country it is unbelievable.  There is no escape from noise here.  Not even at church. And with the loudspeakers broadcasting each service there's no escape from the church either. 

Fighting Cocks

Fighting cocks are everywhere in this country.  After all, cockfighting is the national sport of the Philippines. In order to fight cocks you have to breed and raise them so what better place to set up huge fighting cock breeding grounds but in a gated residential community.

It's cock-a-doodle-do all day long.  They don't just crow at sunrise.  They crow whenever they feel like it. Even at 2am!  Such a cacophony of noise along with the motorcycles, tricycles, fish vendors, barking dogs, and loud music and televisions coming from each house.

In the second picture you can see they didn't even bother to put up a fence around the area.  Instead they sit out in a chair all day and watch their cocks.  They also have two dogs tied up to trees.  How is that supposed to stop any of the stray dogs from stealing a chicken at night?  

Its really a waste of space.  The land could be used more productively by growing crops or building a house.  Build a house?  In a gated residential community?  No let's just raise fighting cocks.  

The are in the fourth picture doesn't just have fighting cocks.  There's also a goat and a few turkeys.  Of course the only real turkeys are the men who fight cocks and decide to raise them in residential areas.  

But it's not just residential areas.  It's everywhere! Hens and cocks are literally all over the place in this country.  Everywhere there is a spare area they will tie one up and build him a little hut. Makes no sense.  

But that's the Philippines.  Nothing here makes sense.