I'm not a tourist, I live here...

Living in Manila during the 80's for sure was an adventure, whether I looked to the right or the left, something was going on. One had to be careful not to run into traps as a newcomer, oh there were plenty. The main problem were the corrupted police and 'barangay' near the tourist belt. They  knew the smell of money like a hash-dog finds your weed... They were 'hunting' tourists and followed the victims for a while to discover their weak points. Taxi-drivers were involved as well. Oh, this is about the first thing you heared: "Taxi sir, taxi !!, you want a girl ?"..."Dollaaar, Dollaaar ".   then they  'hooked' the dumbasses and had them paid a huge amount of foreign currency.. "Dollaaar, Dollaaaaaaaaar". But  this happens in many a big Metropool.  Ermita wasn't different but  special.
 Piece a cake to recognize those 'barangays'( that's how they were called.)., I mean just their attitude, cheeky, mostly drunk and quite often carrying a gun. Now one day it happened that one of those nasty figures was teasing and challenging me. So I told the sucker to stop fooling around with me, either he could drink a beer on me or I would take him down the NBI-gym to kick his pinoy ass. This one wasn't that stupid, he accepted my beer, and every time I saw this guy in Ermita he would say: "Hi Boss, kumusta na po?".

Later on there were T-shirts with this print on it: I'm not a tourist, I live here.

I didn't need it anymore.. hahahahaha