8 Pulog Street

"No one lives there anymore,"  the food vendor answered when asked about the now infamous house along Pulog street. The two-story apartment with high walls made headlines last week after the discovery and successful rescue of an old woman held captive inside a cage.

"But I still see the epileptic guy outside the house," a customer said, who overheard my conversation with the vendor.

"After the episode was aired?" I was referring to the highly controversial XXX episode on the Kapamilya network.

"Yes, but I think they have already left."

The bestial treatment suffered by Lola Lourdes was an abomination beyond understanding.  Not from her own children.   Howls of indignation came from all walks of life.  Even  Julius Babao expressed his disgust on Twitter after learning that the house where the couple lives belong to the old woman.

Lola Lourdes' story had a follow-up episode the week after it was first aired.  TV viewers had learned that the couple still runs free and the glaring incompetence of Mandaluyong DSWD had shamed the entire department - especially its secretary, Dinky Soliman. We also learned how the pouring of love and support for the battered mother is helping her recover from the trauma suffered while being caged in her own house. 

But there is something missing in that episode:  The fate of the old couple.

To find out the answer, I went to Pulog street to stalk the house where Lola Lourdes used to live.  I was expecting trash and posters littering all over the place.  I  thought others were more extreme in venting their anger by applying terror tactics to drive the couple to insanity.

Since the story had already sent shock waves across the city,  I  thought of curious onlookers passing  by the street. The reclusive house with a green gate has no choice but to become a tourist attraction: a monument of shame to children abusing their frail mothers. But what I found instead was a row of quiet houses seemingly unaware that a nightmare had just descended in their neighborhood.

Highly respected tambays (who knows the affairs of Pulog street despite living a few blocks away) believe the couple still lives in that accursed place. Others claim they were already put to jail. While varied opinions tend to hide the truth, both tambays and the people at the karinderya across the house agree on one thing: the sickly couple was perhaps, tired of taking care of the stubborn octogenarian.  Had the barangay knew what was happening, the cruelty might have been prevented.

Haus of Pain

Meanwhile, the house stayed silent the whole time I was there.

Save for a bunch of kids enjoying the  late afternoon stillness by picking the sour fruits of a Kamias tree growing inside that empty place.