I have not been to Terminal 2 in years. I mean sure, I dropped Steph off here a few months ago, but I haven’t been inside this terminal in years. Maybe decades.

Wait, scratch that. I was here when I flew from Tagbilaran back to Manila. It was not a lot of time - I was only there to pick up my luggage and find a cab home - but it was evident a lot of things had changed, at least on the outside.

I spend more time in the two other terminals. Terminal 1 is old, sure, but there is a charm in being inside a somewhat Brutalist building, designed by a National Artist at that. I feel we are being unfair to it because it isn’t wide and sleek and almost futuristic like other international hubs in neighboring countries - but I will concede that it is definitely too small for current needs. I will also concede that the last time I was there, when I flew to Bangkok, I paid to use the PAL Mabuhay Lounge and was able to escape the crowds at the boarding gates.

Terminal 3 is, of course, a different thing. It is supposed to be the wide, sleek, futuristic facility that would welcome foreign visitors to Manila. Of course, in reality, it’s unloved. I always felt like it’s a hospital that doesn’t get cleaned enough (and doesn’t smell of disinfectant as a result). It also has the most underwhelming welcome once you get your luggage and venture past the customs gates - or perhaps it is overwhelming, because there’s always a throng of people waiting outside, massed by the fence, holding up signs with exotic names, as if personal space was never a thing. (I know, I know. I will concede that, at least in Manila, there is no such thing as personal space, unless you’re ultra-rich, or pass as one.)

As a regular traveler, though - what a privilege to be able to say that, even if all of my trips in the last eight years have been for work - the looks of the airport are really the least of our problems. It’s not an inspiring experience, especially in Terminal 3, but at least it works. But again, it is a privilege to be able to say that. I have not tried transferring terminals. One thing NAIA woefully lacks is inter-terminal connectivity. Changi has the SkyTrain and Hong Kong has the advantage of being too fucking massive for its own good, but NAIA? Just another sign that we don’t care about how we move and connect people. Bahala ka diyan. Diskarte mo na ‘yan.

I’m actually surprised this isn’t the first thing the folks at San Miguel decided to fix when they took over daily operations at the airport. Sure, low-hanging fruit first. Change the retail mix. Kick out the tepid, generic, overspending eateries and replace them with brands you’d also see in every single mall in the country. Change! But then, yes, inter-terminal connectivity - and shuttle buses don’t count - is an expensive, disruptive undertaking. Might as well just move everyone to a new airport that they’re also conveniently building despite no government guarantees that everyone will be moved there, and also, doesn’t it flood easily in Bulacan? Oh, well. Nothing that getting rid of that traitor Ninoy Aquino’s name on our airports, right?

But back to Terminal 2. I’ve only been here a few times, because for the longest time, this was exclusively for Philippine Airlines flights. I may travel regularly, but the office would only pay for Cebu Pacific, the one reason why so many of us can claim to travel regularly. That means Terminal 3, and all that it entails. Terminal 2 also has that problem with the uninspiring retail mix and the lack of connectivity, but of all the terminals, I feel it is the best-designed. It’s pretty straightforward, and it works.

Of course, now, things are different. I’m writing this piece from a Paris Baguette branch. It’s funny how I’ve only really tried this chain in Manila, but never in Korea - although I did try in Jeju, only to find out that in Jungmun it’s nothing more than a bakery. No seats. Anyway. The idea of a “travellers’ hub” wouldn’t have occurred to our government when they ran the airport, and I am way too early for my flight to Legazpi (for work, again), so here I am, writing.

What does overpriced coffee buy you? Time here, of course. I suppose it’s not any different from using the Mabuhay Lounge, except that there you can graze for as much as your belly, or the flight schedules, allow. But that’s enough to tell people that things are much better now. At least you get coffee that’s better than the underwhelmingly tepid stuff from a dispenser? It’ll itch your scratch for a while, at least until you remember how sprawling Hong Kong is, or how mall-like Suvarnabhumi is, or how hushed Changi is, because everything is carpeted there. Have you noticed?

And then you complain again. Angelina Jolie is apparently here in the country, to take part in one of the many summits preceding the ASEAN Leaders’ Summit that will paralyze the capital next week (or is already paralyzing it, you choose). There are photos of her walking through the warmly lit corridors of Terminal 1, and you go, “ugh, they make her go through the worst airport in the Philippines? We all deserve a beautiful airport!”

And then you see news of the government covering up the slums - once again - with billboards depicting the works of our most renowned painters, and you go, “show the foreigners who we really are! Show the foreigners who you really are!”

I mean, sure, I will concede that we should do less of the performative shit and more of the real thing, but being mad about some white guy seeing the ugliest of us, and then being mad about the same white guy not being shown the ugliest of us… isn’t that ugly, too?