by Ramona S. Diaz
The official birth of the 100-millionth Filipino child in Dr. Jose Fabella Memorial Hospital attracts a huge flock of reporters that disrupts the day-to-day running of the hospital. The specialist maternity hospital in Manila generally is a place of refuge and seclusion from the metropolitan outside world that surrounds it. The image that is rendered by the hospital is one of cheerful women, baby in belly or arm, exchanging not only tales of birth, but also of their husbands’ secret sexual desires. The women share everything, including their beds, their suffering and their joy. It is only once visiting hours arrive and loved-ones interfere that their microcosm is shattered and the everyday problems of poverty and gang violence begin to creep in.