Filipino Shopping: The Palengke Style

    “Tin, bangon na diyan, samahan mo ko sa palengke…”

A couple of extra hours in bed every Saturday morning is a luxury for a college student with a hectic weekday schedule. But this isn’t the case for my mother who would pressure me into waking up before seven for an extra company. Though I’m already in my 20s, I am among those children who easily get tag along by their mothers for their morning trips to the public market. By 7 o’clock, with my mother’s bayong in hand, we will board the jeepney to reach the Karuhatan public market or known by the locals as the Palengke ng Karuhatan.

Amid the familiar smell of fresh fishes, produce, and the stench of animal blood, the palengke is certainly an explosion of the typical Manila urban scene – chaotic, crowded, and colorful. The palengke, an integral part of the Filipino life – is where the community culture begins.

In every local community, the public market served as its remaining cultural heritage in the midst of the thriving commercial development. Despite the fierce competition among supermarkets, convenience stores and high-rise malls, majority of the locals flock to public markets to buy fresh edibles for their family and to get a feel of its bustling atmosphere.

Now You See Them, Now You Don’t

The starting point of Karuhatan public market starts at the jeepney terminal. To get there, we have to take the 150-meter walk along Karuhatan Road and pass through street vendors or what I preferably call, the “obstacle courses”.

In a typical public market scene, market vendors are essentials to the social fabric of the palengke culture. They have proven their resilience in pursuing livelihood from a wide array of products as long as it is profitable (such as dried goods, street foods like tokneneng and fried calamares, mothballs, garters, pirated DVDs, children’s toys, curtains, ukay-ukay stalls, and even aphrodisiacs). It has also become a form of economic phenomenon where small families resort to small enterprises as the quickest way to obtain their source of income on a day-to-day basis.

Although the local government prohibits street vending, the area owners allow sellers as occupants in exchange for a cheaper rent fee. Otherwise, ambulant vendors may move about as long as the area is vacant or the situation necessitates (surprise sidewalk clearing operations). Those who are brave enough claim a partial area of the main road. They never mind if they are the main cause of the morning traffic, as long as they get the greatest advantage among other sellers.

While others find it easy to ignore street vendors along their way, there are others who don’t. If you steal a quick glance at their products, these vendors will quickly assume that you are a prospect buyer. Then, they will start yelling out their goods and prices until they get your attention. “Bagong dating lang yan! Sariwang-sariwa!” My mother frequently falls for this. Instead of reaching the palengke in a short amount of time, she approaches these vendors, scans their goods until she says, “Itabi mo yan, babalik ako!”

The street vending phenomenon embodies a Filipino cultural factor that rests on the idea of convenience and communal spaces. In a third world economy like the Philippines, Filipinos who cannot afford to eat in restaurants and shop in supermarkets, find street vending as the cheapest and accessible way to fulfill their daily needs. You can also find novelty items and fashion trends that are available in malls sold in street corners for a cheaper price. These goods, being sold outside the public market suddenly becomes the recourse of the average Filipino with only a meager budget that will satisfy both his wants and needs.

In a study, street vending in public market is viewed as a form of communal gathering where the streets turn into a communal space. The consumers and vendors form interdependence among community members to survive. The urban domestic spaces extend towards the streets to the public market, thus initiating a form of community bonding in an urban public space.

Beyond the Palengke

            Once you’re inside the public market, the first thing you will see are the arrays of glistening orange light bulbs that lit up each stall. Vendors have their own way of neatly arranging their goods in order to maximize the limited space of their stalls and to attract the attention of their customers. Fresh produce such as vegetables and fruits are trucked in from various nearby provinces. And if you are a little early, you will see men carrying dozens of live chickens and pigs cut in half delivered in each meat stalls.

A lot of people would say that the palengke is not for those people who are easily disgusted by weird smells and muddy floors. There you will encounter the noisy palengkeras, shirtless men drenched in sweat, the sight and smell of blood, stray cats and dogs, and other ridiculous sightings.

Basically, everything is a matter of survival.

In a public market, one has to endure all kinds of extreme conditions. First, wet markets are known for its pungent odor which is a mixture of overripe produce, the salty smell of frozen seafood and decaying meat (specifically pigs and chickens). There are also fish vendors who constantly wash down and spray the food and floors using the water that came from large fish tubs. Once the customers are inside, their feet are reeked with salt water and mud.

My mother told me that the stench did not come from the products but it is from the uncollected garbage which came from rotten fruits and vegetables and discarded organs of fish and chickens. Sellers tend to keep their personal stalls clean by carelessly dumping their garbage in every nook or vacant spaces no matter how horrible and pungent-smelling their environment becomes. But the familiar pungent smell and muddy floors of the public market becomes highly tolerable for the frequent goers. Every unpleasant sensation easily fades away once you become too preoccupied with the variety of goods you will see.

Second, public markets are always crowded especially in the morning and late afternoon. Since market stalls are generally small, the customers have to squeeze in among the crowd in order to get a hold of their choice cuts before somebody gets it. Aside from women, you may also encounter men in bulky frames who are either carrying large crates of fish containers and sacks of fresh produce. Public markets are cramped and usually lack ventilation, so the atmosphere can be quite humid where everyone are mostly drenched in their own sweat.

The Suki and Seller

            A Filipino ethnographer remarked that in the midst of chaos and disorder, the daily activities inside the public market carries on; starting from the arrival, screening of goods, haggling, gossiping and the eventual purchasing. Aside from providing market opportunities to Filipino small entrepreneurs, the public market breathes life to the local communities through social exchanges.

The community-based interaction between shoppers and vendors inside the marketplace is one of the important aspects of the palengke culture. The suki culture is a market-exchange relationship which allows forming bonds over transactions between the suki (patron) and the market vendor. The customers who regularly buy to specific vendors receive benefits through price deductions, special treatments (accommodated first among rare customers), and quality products. It is also a way for the sellers to maintain their regular customers because of the stiff competition in their neighboring market stalls.

Other customers can also receive price reductions through the tawad system. This is done through persistent bargaining where the customer and the vendor agree upon a specific price. However, there are customers who can be abusive of their tawad and will ask for larger discounts. These types of customers are called the barat.

According to a sociologist, the public market carries a high degree of reciprocal and conscious social obligation. The palengke culture bears witness on the Filipino character on forming fellowship and important bonds. The economic exchange between the suki and the seller highlights the importance of friendship and trust. Sellers express appreciation to regular customers who patronize their products by giving them the best service, best price, and the best quality.

On the other hand, the palengke culture also exhibits the negative aspects of the Filipino character that is unconsciously opportunistic. The street vendors who are willing to break the law go through the constant battle on claiming the urban space. This is very typical among Filipinos who see any size of vacant land (even the most dangerous areas) as an opportunity to start their livelihood and build their homes. They are also sellers who ensure the cleanliness of their stalls by disposing their garbage away from their personal space without thinking how it can affect the overall image of the public market. Although the Filipinos are known for their communal action and spirit of cooperativeness, they tend to separate their internal space to their external environment.

The Philippines, being considered as a “collectivistic society” is also manifested inside the palengke by which they foster their long-term commitment to their family and market vendors. It becomes a venue where the mixture of both economic and social transaction takes place. Filipinos, especially homemakers, spend more of their time inside the public market by allotting extra minutes to deliberate for their family’s next dish, a few minutes of interaction with their kumares and kumpares on the latest gossip, consciously estimating if their expenses will meet their family’s budget and taking time on picking the best ingredients for their meal.

A public market has become a central venue of urban communities like Manila to develop and maintain their relationship among their community members. Amidst the fast-paced urban life, the public market becomes an accessible communal space to form social ties among neighbors through social and economic exchanges.  Thus, public markets proves becomes essential part of the communal shared space that celebrates community bonding.

The palengke – the repository of Filipino cultural practices – reflects the economic trade, culture and character of a given local community. Amid the rapid development of the modern society, the palengke will remain anchored as one of the essentials to the traditional Filipino living. It is a marketplace of our fond memories that resonates the slice of the Filipino life.

The palengke culture, the melting pot of the Filipino cultural practices, is truly a microcosm of the Manila urban scene that carries all its values and traditions.

Bibliography

Baum, H., & Spitzer, T. (1995). Public Markets and Community Revitalization. ULI-the Urban Land Institute          and Project for Public Spaces, Incorporated.             doi:https://books.google.com.ph/books/about/Public_Markets_and_Community_Revitalizat.html?            id=JVJPAAAAMAAJ&redir_esc=y

Chenxi, C. (2013, May 5). Relevance of Traditional Wet Markets, as a Communal Space that Promotes       Community Bonding, in Singapore’s Public Housing Estates. Retrieved 13 2017, May, from Asian           Urban Epicenters: http://www.asianurbanepicenters.com/?p=1734

Hernandez, D. (1994). Balut to Barbeque: Philippine Streetfood. Tikim , pp. 3-13.

Manalansan, M. (2000). Cultural Compass: Ethnographic Explorations of Asian America. Temple University Press. doi:https://books.google.com.ph/books?id=nn-M8nk0oFkC&dq

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Filipinos of New York

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