The Chinito Walkers are mapping Manila on foot
In pre-war times before the construction of the LRT, Taft Avenue was a wide, gracious boulevard shaded by a canopy of trees. That green roof is gone, replaced by a concrete expanse that has trickled down its urban blight onto cracked sidewalks; some carrying the unmistakable smell of city life. This is something the students of De La Salle University (DLSU) know well and bemoan openly. It’s also something the Chinito Walkers feature pointedly, though with a healthy dose of humor.
The four boys hop over broken sidewalks, then pause mid-walk to pass around packs of Nagaraya, tearing through the familiar color of original yellow and green garlic.
“You know this used to be my favorite pack no’ng elementary,” says Irvin Ong, crunching thoughtfully. “I would always get one of these snacks during lunch break.”
Then, noticing a curious bystander watching them, he offers another packet with a smile.
“Happy belated Valentine’s, po.”
The bystander laughs and takes it.
The viral chroniclers
If you’ve seen their videos online, you might recognize the tone. Sometimes they count piles of poop on the road, keeping a running tally of dog or cat waste encountered along the way.
The four walk through Manila’s streets, often across inconceivable distances, with trademark Gen Z stares, wearing deadpan expressions as they calmly observe potholes, broken curbs, mysteriously murky roadside puddles, and sidewalks that abruptly stop mid-build.
Among the four, Ong is a fourth year marketing management student at DLSU. On the side, he also produces music under the name JetNekko.
Beside him are his batchmates and longtime friends from Saint Stephen’s High School. There’s Bon Shi, a senior financial management major who towers over the group and plays table tennis. They tease that he is usually the one carrying the bag and holding their walking essentials.
Then there is Idrian Lim, studying business management, quiet and observant, who practices kickboxing on the side.
And finally, Aron Agulto, another business management student, is the silent partner of the group, often the one behind the camera documenting their multi-kilometer walks.
The four grew up around Tondo and Binondo, and their friendship stretches back years. They like to joke that they are not actually friends, but the easy rhythm of their conversations, the inside jokes, and the way they finish each other’s observations suggest otherwise.
None of them expected that walking would eventually become their shared, viral project.
Online, the four are better known as the Chinito Walkers, a quartet who have become chroniclers of something pedestrians in Manila experience every day: what it actually means to move through the city on foot.
Walking Manila, one broken sidewalk at a time
While they have a distinct sense of humor, beneath their jokes, they’re documenting literally every step of the way, making commentary at the same time.
“The pinaka-common thing na dangerous na nakikita namin is when the sidewalk suddenly disappears,” Ong explains. “You can really feel that the roads and infrastructure are not designed with the intention for people to walk. Cars ‘yong priority.”
“Sometimes we get stranded sa mga islands,” Shi adds, referring to the narrow traffic medians pedestrians sometimes find themselves stuck on. “The traffic lights minsan sira rin, so it’s really hard for people to walk talaga.”
Weather, too, becomes part of the experience. “Sometimes super baha na and it’s raining,” Agulto says simply.
“Ilang beses na natin dinaanan—sobrang na-memorize natin ’to,” Lim says, pointing to a stretch of road ahead. “Mamaya na—walang sidewalk ’to.”
From one spontaneous walk to 100
Their first walk was not meant to become anything. Late in 2024, the four were leaving DLSU and heading for their home LRT station, Vito Cruz. When suddenly, they saw the line snaking endlessly out the entrance. Waiting seemed exhausting, so they joked, what if they simply walked?
“What if one time lang, like bucket list as friends,” Ong remembers thinking. “What if we try to walk from DLSU to Bambang station?”
Ong recorded the entire journey as a time-lapse, mainly to promote his music. His friends did not even know he planned to post it. Lim only found out the next day when his sister sent him the video on TikTok. “I didn’t know,” he laughs. “Sabi ng ate ko, ‘Bakit ka nasa TikTok?’”
Within a week, the video had reached around 400,000 views.
From that first walk, from Taft to Santa Cruz, the group estimates they have now done over 100 walks, sometimes short three-kilometer routes, sometimes far more punishing distances.
One of their most infamous was from DLSU to Ateneo, roughly 21 kilometers, made even harder by the pouring rain. Another difficult route was DLSU to NAIA, where sidewalks almost completely disappeared and roadside garbage filled the air with rancid smells. Then there was the DLSU to SM North EDSA walk, memorable mostly because Agulto had worn slip-on Crocs, not exactly ideal footwear for a full-day trek across Metro Manila. But no matter the walk, they soldier on.
Yet some walks are more rewarding than exhausting. They recall how the route from DLSU to UP Diliman, though nearly four hours long, gradually opened into greener roads lined with trees and continuous sidewalks. After hours of navigating dense city streets, the difference felt striking, while the good company and great weather made it fun.
Humor with a purpose
Part of the charm of the Chinito Walkers is how little they exaggerate anything. “If isa lang sa amin, siguro hindi siya magiging funny,” Ong says. “But when you combine the four of us, we just be ourselves.”
Sometimes strangers recognize them mid-walk. During this interview, a gaggle of girls suddenly runs up asking for a selfie. “Hala kinking ako!” one of them squeals. The boys laugh politely and pose before continuing down the street.
When asked whether Chinito Walkers is entertainment, advocacy, or documentation, the group pauses.
“I think it’s everything combined,” Lim says. “We’re documenting, advocating, and at the same time making it entertaining so people will actually watch it.”
Shi nods. “It’s more about balancing entertainment and documentation,” he adds. “So people watch the whole video and also get information.”
Agulto shrugs. “More on entertainment,” and the boys laugh.
As long as they have feet
Like many students approaching graduation, the four are beginning to think about the future. But for now, they plan to keep walking.
“As long as may paa kami,” Ong says with a grin, “we’ll do our best to incorporate walking through our content.” For him, “It’s a way to share this advocacy and bring awareness to the people living in Manila.”
The Nagaraya pack is now empty. Taft Avenue stretches ahead, uneven sidewalks, tangled cables, traffic rushing past.
Without much ceremony, the Chinito Walkers start moving again, mapping a city that reveals itself differently when you see it on foot, documented for the world to see online, so that someday, someone will make a change, and pedestrians of Manila might walk a little more easily.
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