Roy Tang

It’s around 7 PM on the 31st of December.

Around this time it starts to become dangerous to walk upon the streets of Metro Manila. In fact, I would never go out on the streets after dark on New Year’s Eve. People are starting to throw their pyrotechnics around, and no matter what community you live in, there’s a chance of some reckless kid carelessly tossing some dangerous firecracker somewhere in your direction.

Around 9-10 PM it will be impossible to walk the streets.

I also have this irrational fear of getting hit by a stray bullet on New Year’s Eve. Sometimes you can catch me compulsively looking up to the sky even when there aren’t any pretty lights.