Hanging prominently above his stall, Lintag’s trade name represents two different eras — modern (tarpaulin) and the old (hand-written). MindaNews photo by BONG S. SARMIENTO
GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews / 23 June) – Since his younger days, Jeanito Lintag is a bookworm whose love for books did not waver until now that he’s 64 years old.
He has been a vendor at the city’s main public market here, which is just a stone’s throw away from the Queen Tuna Park, a public beach front property within the city proper, since the 1990s.
Lintag has been renting Stall No. 2, Phase A for the past three decades, starting as a magazine retailer for titles he could not forget such as MOD, Women’s, Mr. & Mrs., and Panorama (an insert within the Manila Bulletin newspaper), among others.
He sold them along with comics, which were a hit among the youths of the 80s and 90s, who could now be in their 40s or 50s.
When Filipino pocketbooks became popular after comics, Lintag, naturally, sold them also.
Nowadays, magazines, comics and pocketbooks are considered “have-beens,” seldom seen in the streets unlike in their heyday.
For many, the era of these reading materials may have been long gone, but not for Lintag, a graduate of Bachelor of Science in Commerce Major in Economics at the then Notre Dame of Dadiangas College here (now Notre Dame of Dadiangas University).
Jeanito Lintag shows some of the pocketbooks for rent at his stall in this photo taken 12 June 2024. MindaNews photo by BONG S. SARMIENTO
At Lintag’s stall, voluminous pocketbooks are still neatly stacked inside boxes, waiting to be rented by those who love to read.
Placed behind cellophanes, candies, biscuits and bottled water, among others, these pocketbooks, mostly with romance as the overarching theme, are written in TagLish, or Tagalog-English language, and have literally seen the good old days – wrinkled covers with yellow, stained or brittle pages.
Over a thousand titles remained in the only bookstore that literally survived in this public market since romance- or love-themed pocketbook reading became a hit three decades ago.
Comics or pocketbook reading was among the main pastimes of Filipino kids or teenagers of the 80s and 90s – if they were not playing the traditional games of “tumbang preso,” luksong “tinik,” “sipa,” and “tagu-taguan,” among others.
These traditional games do not require expensive equipment, but mainly the physical or mental agility, quickness, energy or ingenuity of the players. Tumbang preso, for example, needs only a slipper to hit a tin can so that other players can return to base.
With the advent of the internet in the early 2000s and the availability of cheap smartphones in the last 10 years or so, comics, Filipino pocketbooks and the traditional Pinoy games of the 80s and 90s have excruciatingly and gradually become extinct.
But for the love of reading, Lintag defied the odds and in the last 15 years, still continues to rent the thousands of Tagalog pocketbooks that he amassed all along.
It was only this year that he finally admitted to himself that the era of pocketbooks had ended.
Still, he did not throw or keep in the storage room his pocketbooks. He still displays them at his stall that screams the trade name “Glocen Pocketbooks Retailer” and “Jeanito M. Lintag Glogen Pocket Book.”
The presentation of both trade names represents different eras – the former modern as it is printed in tarpaulin and the latter in the age-old tradition of hand-drawn design, written on plywood.
It apparently strikes a similar chord to Lintag’s reading-based business, which is now made archaic by the quick pace of technological advances such as the internet and smartphones.
In the heydays of his comics and pocketbook business until technology changed everything, life was good for Lintag and his family. They have two kids now, all grown-up.
But nowadays, Lintag barely earns from his pocketbooks.
“Very minimal, di ka na pwedeng mabuhay sa ganitong negosyo. Karamihan sa ngayon zero ang kita kasi walang nag-aarkila (It’s very minimal. You can’t live with this kind of business anymore. Most days, there’s no income because nobody’s renting),” he told MindaNews.
His “suki” customers are housewives or storekeepers, who have been renting far and few in between now because of the advent of technology.
Lintag rents his pocketbooks cheap – from P3 to P5 each. There is no due date but he requires renters to deposit between P10 to P100, depending on the thickness or age of the pocketbook.
Unlike in its prime, he slapped a penalty of P1 per day for each book that’s not returned on time.
Death by technology
“Technology killed my pocketbook business,” Lintag stressed.
With the internet now common in many parts of the Philippines, even in the mountains where “piso wi-fi” is available, readers have resorted to online sites, such as Wattpad that offers free Tagalog pocketbooks.
Lintag is surrounded by pocketbooks that he amassed in decades. MindaNews photo by BONG S. SARMIENTO
Ninety-nine percent of the 114-million population owns a smartphone but only 7 in 10 Filipinos use the internet via mobile phones, according to the Media Ownership Monitor Philippines 2023 published by Vera Files.
Internet penetration is at 72.7 percent according to the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT), the country’s national planning and implementing ICT agency, it added.
Lintag shared that he does not want to dispose of his pocketbooks because “reading is my major advocacy.” His collections include those published by Precious Hearts Romance, Special Valentines Romance, Valentines Romance, and Pinoy Romance.
When he ventured into comics and pocketbooks decades ago, his hope was for the Filipino youths to be wide readers even in their own language.
Lintag pointed out that citizens of Japan and South Korea loved to read in their own language, which he believed helped these countries become progressive.
His eyes beamed when he recalled those years in the local public market when young and old alike would rent newspapers, comics and pocketbooks, and sit down flipping through the pages, eventually drowned in their own worlds by the magic of words.
“Now you seldom see students or young people reading books,” Lintag said. “Mostly, they’re playing games or scrolling social media on their cellphones.”
Because of the “poor reading habits” of the new generations (Gen Z and Alpha), “they have poor vocabulary and comprehension, many writing in ‘jejemon’,” he said.
According to The Freeman, jejemon is a pop culture phenomenon in the country where an individual, usually young people, alters the established language – either English or Filipino – to the point of incomprehensibility by others who are not in such practice. The practice does not only cover language, either spoken or written, but extends to demeanor and fashion as well.
Basically not earning much from his pocketbooks, Lintag started selling cellophanes this year, aside from candies, biscuits, soft drinks and bottled water – like a mom-and-pop store – to augment his income. He also distributes orders from online shops (Shopee) just within the vicinity of the public market to make extra income.
But he could not let go or throw his pocketbooks, even if he is the only one renting it now in the public market. His competitors have long stopped from the trade because it is no longer feasible with the technological advances.
“Di ko maiwan ang business na ito kasi love ko (I could not leave this business because it’s my love. Ngayon (Now) it’s not for profit already. Advocacy ko ang reading,” Lintag said. (Bong S. Sarmiento / MindaNews)
