From Hong Kong

It was a strange feeling.

I was a Sunday and I had just gotten out of the 3:00 pm PAL flight from Manila into yet another line with the rest of the people at this all too familiar airport.

"domestic, domestic, domestic..."

I thought to myself, hmm, must be a new policy. Never heard of a line for domestic travel.

Never the less, I dutifully lined up at the immigration counter for entry clearance. Never really cared to bother why I was the only guy in the cue -- really didn't want to look stupid. I just figured this must be where all the Filipinos line up.

That was until a Filipino Hong Kong immigration officer, pointed me to another line.

"Sir, doon na lang po kayo sa kabilang linya."

And then it hit me -- I had just found myself in a cue for domestic helpers.

And from the other side of the fence, I saw this great mass of Filipina mothers, sisters, daughters and wives filing silently into what seemed to me the entry gates to quiet desperation.

I had always thought of myself to be a pretty modern guy who at a moment's notice would leave god forsaken Manila once a great career opportunity presented itself.

I have to admit though that even while staying at the best hotels and traveling in style, it takes all of three days for me to give up this pretense and begin missing my family and friends back in god forsaken Manila.

I could only begin to imagine how it was like for them, the Filipina mom, who left 3 kids -- Ana, 10; Mike, 6 and Pilo, 3. or the Filipina sister who would need to work to send Jun-jun money for tuition. or the Filipina daughter who's tatay Lito was dying. or the Filipina wife, who last saw her Allan, her husband-waiter who works in Dubai, 4 years ago. All this as they cleaned, washed, cooked and cared for another person's son, another person's bother, another person's father, another person's husband.

And as my limo service drove past Victoria Park and into the driveway of Park Lane Hotel past Filipina mothers, sisters daughters and wives on their Sunday afternoon break, I understood, even for just a while, what it took to be Filipino.