The good old days

If these so-called “conservationists” are looking for anyone to blame for the demolition of Admiral Hotel in Manila, then it is the National Historical Commission of the Philippines (NHCP) itself.

It turns out that Anchor Land Holdings, which acquired Admiral Hotel from the Lopez-Araneta group in 2009, actually wrote NHCP in November last year inquiring about the status of the hotel as a possible cultural heritage site.

This is due to the National Cultural Heritage Act of 2009 under Republic Act no. 10066 which says that buildings that are over 50 years old are presumed to be historic.

The NHCP, in a letter dated January 2014 and signed by its chairperson Maria Serena Diokno, said they have “no information about historical events that transpired at Admiral Hotel but advise to consider property for adaptive reuse.”

Adaptive reuse, as defined in RA 10066, refers to the utilization of buildings, other built-structures and sites of value for purposes other than that for which they were intended originally, in order to conserve the site, their engineering integrity and authenticity of design.

With most of its developments based in Manila, Anchor Land thought of a brilliant idea to resurrect the lost glory of the old Admiral Hotel. The developer sought the help of Accor Group, the biggest and most acclaimed hotel operator in Europe, to bring back the city of Manila and the Admiral Hotel on the global map from a heritage standpoint.

But the need to retrofit the entire structure was beyond question. The hotel already showed signs of dilapidation after being left for naught for more than a decade. Engineering investigations done determined that the original building was no longer structurally sound following years of slow deterioration. A separate structural assessment also revealed that retrofitting could not be done anymore since most of the beams and pillars supporting the structure were already missing.

 Given the uncertainty of the structural integrity of the Admiral property, Anchor Land sought the permission of the Manila City government to demolish the structure instead. The request was granted, and so Anchor Land went on to carry out the first step of its redevelopment plan for the Admiral. 

Then came this so-called heritage conservationists who began making an issue of the demolition and who brought the matter to the attention of the National Museum. The latter inspected the building on Sept. 23, then coordinated with the National Commission for Culture and the Arts to instruct the NHCP to issue a cease-and-desist order.

NHCP then issued the CDO, after giving the green light just last January to Anchor Land to proceed with the development.

With Admiral Hotel half-demolished, what’s going to happen next?

In the meantime, the now abandoned hotel is threatening the safety and welfare of the public. The NHCP has refused to have the property cleared of debris at a time when torrential rains and flash floods keep hounding Manila.

What is worse though is that these belated and moot attempts at “preserving” alleged historic structures will definitely take its toll on Manila’s ability to lure much-needed investments.

By allowing Anchor Land to proceed with the redevelopment and then instead make sure that in its plan, efforts are made to bring Admiral Hotel’s lost glory, won’t NHCP and the other government agencies concerned do history a big favor? By leaving the hotel in ruins, aren’t our so-called government historical and cultural vanguards doing our country a disservice?

The National Museum can’t even properly preserve the paintings and other art treasures that it has. NCCA spends a large part of its funds sending its own people to foreign film festivals and events instead of giving grants to artists. And NHCP? It doesn’t have the integrity to defend the advice that it earlier gave to Anchor Land.

In short, there is a way to preserve heritage and at the same time, not be a deterrent to development.

As envisioned, once finished, the eight-story Admiral Boutique Hotel will become the country’s first five-star boutique hotel. Aside from this, it will also proudly carry the distinction of being the first hotel establishment in the Philippines to be part of Accor’s prestigious MGallery collection of high-end hotels, a milestone few other hotel establishments in the world get to claim.

Anchor Land was looking to officially unveil the project in time for the 75th heritage anniversary of the Admiral Hotel in 2016, which is why the company is working doubly hard to have operational restrictions lifted on the property so it can proceed to bringing the Admiral Hotel back to life.

Admiral Hotel would have gotten back its old and lost glory, if given a chance.

Cleaning House

Work for the cause, not for the applause, as the old saying goes.

The present Philippine National Police (PNP) dispensation is implementing huge reforms, but unfortunately, they are being overlooked.

Some of the more recent and significant attempts at institutionalized reform concern the PNP Firearms and Explosives Office (FEO), which acts as the government’s regulatory agency over the ownership and use of firearms.

Uncontrolled gun ownership and use has resulted in the rise of criminality in the country. Under PNP Chief Director General Alan Purisima, the country’s police force is seeking to remedy these and many other problems, via the implementation of various changes and projects with the goal of “cleaning house,” so to speak.

One of these is the ongoing “Oplan Katok,” where task force members go door-to-door, visiting registered owners of firearms to check if their papers are in order and their licenses current.  If not, the owners are advised on where to go in order to fix the problem.

This is a great leap forward compared to the days when one could simply pay to get a license to own and even carry firearms without the need of being physically present.

Sadly, Purisima is stepping on powerful toes. He told the Senate that he had become a target of an organized smear campaign to block the reforms he had put in place within the police force, particularly in fighting corruption in the processing of gun permits.

Purisima, appearing before the Senate Committee on Public Order and Dangerous Drugs chaired by Senator Grace Poe, also said that the syndicates operating within the firerams and explosives office that were stripped of their “businesses” were going after his neck.

Hard as it may seem, the PNP should not give up. It will be a painful exercise for many but once it is done the police force will be benefitted because corruption will be a thing of the past and the Filipino people can once again look up to the police and consider them as their heroes.

For comments, email at [email protected].