From afar, Catbalogan is just one of the cities of the Philippines. Ordinary, laid back, nothing more. But when you are at the center of all of Catbalogan, the experience is entirely frustrating if not yucky.
The city (by all standards it is not!) is a place where everyone, from children down to standbys in the corner, from the padyak drivers to students and professionals, is a big wastebasket case. And I mean a real waste basket. If it is not clear enough to you- the place is a garbage lot. A big one.
People (read- everyone!) just throw their waste just about everywhere! Streets. Open sewer. The sea.
I don't know if it is a cultural thing but they do and blatantly do it! Sometimes I consider Warays to be the dirty citizens of the world. But there is Tacloban too, and by affiliation, they are Warays, too. I bet they would protest! But Calbayog (also Warays) is just like that, throwing garbage everywhere, six or seven years ago, my last visit to the place.
I could have shoot several proofs on this matter but it would make myself unclean and I don't want to remember that.
One time, in one of the visits to Catbalogan, that city (which is not a city by all standards, I repeat) a whole mountain of garbages (sic, to make my point clear) could be found everywhere. The problem? The city government and the provincial government could not agree on whose responsibility it was to collect the garbage. Isn't that weird?
And Warays on that side of the world seemed to be at home with dirt and everything dirty! Ewww!
