Jogging (part 1)

Sumulat ang isa nating shupatemba tungkol sa kanyang karanasan sa BGC. Hindi ito booking mga ateng kaya 'wag kayong ano diyan. Ngunit kahit na wala itong halong kahalayan, naniniwala ako na may kapupulutan tayong aral. Narito ang unang bahagi...

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Photo from livehealthy.chron.com

Hi Ms. Melanie,

I am a fellow PUPian but it has nothing to do with PUP. Please maintain my confidentiality. This happened last October 8, 2015.

NOTE:
- I know I have lapses to over what happened.
- I also want to know what I could have done, and let others know what they can do in this kind of situations
- I may have grammatical errors too. Pardon me.

(Part 1 of 3) JOGGING AT TERRA 28th, 8:00pm, non-verbatim

Jogging at TERRA 28th is my fitness fix. I go every night in between 7pm - 9pm because it is the best schedule I can fit it into.

I usually leave my stuff at the lamp post near the patintero area. The one shaped like inverted letter J. If you frequent BGC Terra 28th, you know what it is. My bag contained an extra shirt, two small towels, my water jug, keys, cellphone, and coin purse with a small lighter inside - (no cards, no IDs, no big amount of cash since I just live nearby walking distance).

On my 5th lap, I noticed that my bag is missing.

I started looking around if somebody has my bag, accidentally or on purpose - whatever. I needed my keys at most so I can get inside the house. I started looking at the group of people. Went back to post, went around looking, went back to the post until a fellow jogger approached me:

JOGGER: Ano hinahanap mo? Bag na itim?
ME: Opo. Nakita niyo po ba?
JOGGER: Kinuha ng mga bata. Mga ganito kaliit (describes). Around 10 years old. Tatlo sila, nakapula yung isa. Pumunta doon (points at the direction of the on-going Alveo property construction).
ME: Salamat po. Kanina pa?
JOGGER: Around 20 minutes na.

I went to look at the next block which is the Alveo property construction. Di pa ako nakakatawid, may nakasalubong ako na dalawang bata. One toying around a lighter. I let it them pass kasi dalawa lang sila pero I went back to check if that was my lighter.

ME: Hijo patingin nga ng lighter mo.

Gives it to me. Small, black, with gold metallic casing at the top.

ME: Akin to eh! Asan yung susi ko? Yung bag ko?

The other one handed the keys over to me.

ME: Asan yung bag ko? Bakit kayo nangunguha ng gamit? May nakakita sa inyo. Nakapula daw yung isa!
KID 2: Hindi po pula yan! Pink yan!
KID 1: Hindi po kami nanguwa niyan kuya! Mga pulubi lang kami. Naglalakad dun sa ano… nakita lang naming yan dun sa ano… halamanan dun sa halaman.

We went to the low shrubs along the sidewalk. Points out my stuff. Nakakalat yung mga gamit ko sa mga halaman. Everything, except my phone and coin purse.

ME: Asan cellphone ko? Wallet? Pacheck nga ng bulsa niyo!

Both showed their pockets. KID 1 showed an empty pocket, the other kid showed another pair of keys.

ME: Bakit kayo nangunguha ng gamit? Alam niyo ba na taga DSWD nanay ko? (Which is true) Pwede kayo madampot niyan!

Natigilan sila.

KID 1: Eh tatay ko pulis.
ME: Tamang-tama! Alam niya ang proseso kung pano dumampot ng mga bata sa ganitong sitwasyon. Halika kayo. Sumama kayo saken. (Hoping to tag them along to any nearby security marshall around.)
KID 1: Bakit kami sasama? Hindi nga kami kumuha niyan! Dun tayo sa kuya ko… para magpatayan na lang tayo.

I sensed trouble. I thought: my life over a cellphone? No. So I insisted to tag them along without doing any harm. But since I cannot see any security personnel around, I had them just walked away. At least I had my keys. I am quite sure hindi ko na makukuha yung cellphone at wallet ko. Malamang tinakbo na nung isa nila kasama.

On the other hand, I realized, they still had another set of keys. So baka hindi lng ako ang nanakawan that night. So I went to look around for any security personnel to alert them. But nobody is around. Instead, I went to High Street, and saw the CONCIERGE beside TIMEZONE. I reported the situation.

Itutuloy...