MANILA, Philippines - Business stopped at several markets in Caloocan, Malabon, Navotas and Valenzuela on Saturday afternoon as vendors and buyers watched fictional couple “AlDub” go on a romantic date.
The streets were also deserted as jeepney and tricycle drivers temporarily stopped plying their routes – something that used to happen only during boxing icon Manny Pacquiao’s fights.
“We will resume business at 3 p.m. AlDub muna tayo,” said Juliana de Castro, who sells puto (rice cake) and other snacks at the Malabon Central Market.
More than a hundred vendors, some of them standing on top of their wares, gathered in front of De Castro’s 12-inch television set, “encouraging” Alden Richards and Yaya Dub, played by Maine Mendoza, as they answered questions on their compatibility raised by Yaya Dub’s guardians.
A restaurant owner from Navotas, who was visiting her supplier, joined the crowd. She shared high fives with vendors beside her each time the couple’s answers matched.
In the meat and fish section of the market, the smell of sweat and cigarette smoke filled the air as more than 50 vendors huddled in front of a table where a 24-inch television was placed.
It was the same scenario at the Sangandaan and Pajo markets in Caloocan City.
A tabloid reporter who passed the Concepcion Market in Malabon and Navotas Market sent a text message to The STAR that the streets were deserted and ambulant vendors were nowhere to be found as they were watching noontime show Eat Bulaga’s hit Kalyeserye segment, which started two months ago.
Police officers manning the precinct at the market in Gen. T. de Leon in Valenzuela said it was peaceful in the area “because the people were glued in front of their television sets.”
Malabon public information chief Bong Padua said his staff religiously follow every Kalyeserye episode on weekdays and stay home on Saturdays, “when something big happens.”
A Caloocan City government department head said his relatives in Canada and the United States follow every episode online and the two lovers’ plight is their favorite topic whenever they are gathered.
Tweets
A good number of the crowd at the Malabon market started sending tweets as soon as Eat Bulaga host Joey de Leon announced that the number of tweets reached six million.
Emotions ran high as Richard and Mendoza showed they had the same answers when one guardian, Lola Tinidora (played by Paolo Ballesteros) asked them to choose between “now and forever.”
A 16-year-old girl shouted, “Merong forever (There is forever)!” The girl said she recently broke up with her boyfriend.
The crowd became rowdier as the two actors started moving closer to each other.
De Castro said the short time they stayed watched the episode “feels like forever,” during which they “forgot our problems even for a while. Now it’s back to reality.”
The crowd dispersed, with strangers discussing the day’s episode and what they expect to see in the next one.