THE first time I came to realize how important malls were for Filipinos was when I read an article about overseas Filipino workers in Brunei. They did not complain about anything except that there were not enough malls or nightlife. Another day, a few years later, talking to a high school teacher from a small Mindanao town, I asked how everyday life was there. "Very simple," she said. Unsatisfied with the answer, I kept asking many things, and I came to know that they did not have a public hospital, parks, sidewalks, colleges, fire stations and a few paved roads. They had a very old plaza with a sculpture of Rizal in the center and a very big house in the side — the one of the alcalde (mayor). When I asked what the town really really needed, she did not show a shadow of a doubt: "A huge mall," she said.

The fact that an educated professor living in a faraway place with scarce public services preferred a mall over many other things was not stupid at all. The average mall is a huge, air-conditioned cube where passersby can shop and eat. But not only that. Inside Filipino malls you can also watch films, repair your teeth — or your nails — get a massage, climb a wall, play video games, get a medical consultation, talk to God and pray, get your mobile phone fixed, watch a parade or a fashion catwalk, engage in dancing courses, listen to a political speech, participate in a painting competition, play bingo, exercise your abs, listen to a very talented pianist, meet new people in the cybercafe, do your homework, take a walk or even renew your passport. Malls in the Philippines are indeed multipurpose areas where all these activities can be carried out and many more. Given the failure of the government in many areas to provide certain basic services — not even a nice street to walk — those are being cunningly provided by the malls. The sorry estate of Philippine streets actually guarantees the success of malls. That's why they are not very common or not so successful in cities with some kind of urban planning and open spaces. Economic elites have been fast in occupying the huge gap abandoned by the so-called public servants.

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