Victoria Court Motel

For some reason all our drivers went on leave last monday. Yung isa nadulas daw ang lola sa banyo. Nagtaka nga ako kasi he’s in his 50s me lola pa pala sya.
OMB—– “Deo’s lola must be 237 years old”.
Oyen—- “Pre-historic times”.

One’s daughter celebrated her 7th birthday, two were half-days.
No problem. We could drive.
In an hour, a soldier appeared in my office in full battle gear. He could drive daw. O sige, good.

Edmund———“Baka hindi kayo makapasok sa Forbes Park (at the US Ambassasdor’s residence) dahil naka fatigue sya”.

Yun pala eh merong baon na bihisan.

His driving was okay, he used to work naman pala as driver for Victoria Court motels in Pasig before he became a soldier.

When I told him to drop me off at our subdivision, it opened a can of worms.

According to him, during that time, there were eight vehicles owned by private individuals that were stationed at the Victoria Court in Pasig.
These vehicles were hired by clients leaving the premises to the nearby restaurants like Nipa Hut and shopping malls where they parked their vehicles. In many cases, the guys were dropped off at Nipa Hut, then they would bring the female companion either to her residence or to a mall. Alibis given to husbands would be “inihatid ng kaibigan, naki hitch sa friend, ipinahatid ng friend”.
Sgt. A said that in general, couples go to the motel once a week and on weekdays, and during rush hours para hindi halata pag-uwi nila around 9 pm or 10 pm, still early. Na-traffic lang, dumaan sa mall, kumain kasama ang mga friends, nagpa-spa muna, nagpalipas ng traffic, etc.

He said there were couples who meet in shopping malls like Shangrila, Greenbelt and Megamall. He had picked up a woman from Greenbelt and brought her to the motel in Pasig where her liaison had been waiting in the room.

These were his recollection of some of his experiences during his work there as driver:

1. Two times he dropped off the same Chinese-looking woman (ang puti daw) inside our village. He said she’s in her 40s. The guy got off at the parking of Nipa Hut.
2. A married woman from Acropolis Subdivision in C5 also regularly met with a guy. After their two hour stay in Victoria Court, Sgt. A would drop the guy off in the parking area of Nipa Hut restaurant then he would hatid the woman in Acropolis. This happened once a week.
3. A female celebrity with surname C had hired him twice before to drop her and binatilyo from motel to a mall where she parked her vehicle. She was still married that time, now she’s separated.
4. He said 4 out of 10 couples that he serviced were older women with younger men.
5. The most beautiful girls he had seen were the companions of the lesbians.
6. He also drove for men who attended shower parties in the motel.
7. There were men with younger women (given), male and male, female and female.
8. Checking-in by yourself is no longer allowed because there were two instances where a woman and a male in separate occasions, committed suicide in the room.
9. Two men and a woman is not allowed.
10. Two women and a man is allowed.
11. One person is allowed if you’re going to tell the guard that you are waiting for your companion. Going to the motel separately is done by many couples to avoid detection. To be more discrete.
12. During his work as driver there, he only witnessed once a situation where in detectives called the wife as soon as they spotted the husband and the mistress entering the motel. When the husband and mistress where about to leave the premises, the wife was there waiting. She blocked the vehicle’s path and shouted “get out of there!” When the woman got off the vehicle, the wife tried to hit her but the husband blocked her. The mistress was able to run outside the motel.

Sgt. A resigned after over a year kasi daw lagi syang puyat.

My stomach became very upset after hearing his stories. I became so sad and paranoid. When I got home, I felt like vomiting from paranoia.
The first thing that I did upon entering our house was to dial Edmund’s number. “Tart, ASAN KA?”