Our landscapes, as seen from high

We must congratulate both publisher Vernon Go and editor-in-chief Paulo Alcazaren for 2013 The Philippines Yearbook: The Changing Landscapes of the Philippines.

It’s one of the Yuletide gifts I’ve appreciated most, and certainly one of the most fascinating Yearbook editions I’ve laid my hands upon.

I recall one that celebrated the start of the millennium, or was it the centennial of our republic? It featured photographs of a hundred faces of Filipinos — of all ages, backgrounds, vocations, professions. I remember being amused by the fact that rocker Pepe Smith and public servant Gloria Macapagal Arroyo shared the exact same birthday. Or am I just imagining that now? Oh well. Rock ’n roll.

This latest edition of an annual softbound coffee table showcase of our country’s progress through an often erratic but spellbinding historic continuum is of course in landscape format. The visuals are terrific, with most taken from a bird’s-eye view, that is, from the air — high above cityscapes and country terrain.

The credit goes to aerial photography by way of camera-bearing drones, an activity that Paulo has engaged himself with since he borrowed back a Christmas gift he gave his young son Juancho. He found the remote-controlled device easy to fly, and to shoot good pictures with from high up in the air. As legend now has it, Juancho never got his intended toy back. 

Seriously, Paulo turned serious with drones, with a mind to documenting urban features, which have long been his subject of interest, both as a landscape architect and a writer.

Facebook legions will remember those wondrous photos of the Million People March in Luneta last year — shot from high above Rizal’s monument, and more than managing to document the tide and swell of the crowd, nay, multi-purpose throng that assembled on that historic day.    

He has since hopped around our archipelago, testing more drone-cam photography when he’s not onboard a helicopter. Many of the results of this aerial galivanting can be seen in the 2013 Yearbook. 

Paulo credits Jojo Mariano of Aeroeye Asia “for his company’s new technology of remotely controlled drones to help us take these dramatic shots. The rest of the images were taken from flights on actual helicopters, from tall buildings where we could not fly…from smaller drones, when Jojo’s remotes were not available, and even via balloon-mounted cameras, a personal experiment that worked in a crunch (and so long as there’s no wind).”

The result is a parade of images that we would not otherwise have seen or imagined — the lushness of the UP Diliman campus, Pasig City Hall’s roofdeck that proudly hosts such greenery of grassy lawns and gardens, the uniform red roofs of Vigan’s public buildings…

All of the cities that compose “Imperial Metro Manila” lead the parade, with CAMANAVA (Caloocan, Malabon, Navotas and Valenzuela) strung together, as Taguig and Pateros are partnered (“From Fishing Villages to Global City”), so too Las Piñas, Parañaquue, Muntinlupa (”Southern Comforts”).

 Then there are Los Baños-San Pablo, Legazpi, Naga, Cagayan Valley, Baler-Casiguran, Vigan, Laoag-Bangui-Pagudpud, Baguio, Puerto Princesa, Balicasag-Tagbilaran-Panglao, Metro Cebu, Bacolod, Iloilo, Boracay, Dumaguete, Davao, Cagayan de Oro, and Zamboanga, in that order.

The inclusion of countryside and island attractions obviously complements and enhances cityscapes as the primary players among our changing landscapes. 

Paulo acknowledges that time constraints had him and his team (photographers Joel Sol Cruz and Jerome Abad) miss out on other places in their to-do list. Yes, I would’ve wanted to fly like Icarus above Sarangani and its bay, with GenSan right there. And over Malaybalay, Butuan, Iligan, and other parts of Davao.

Maybe next year’s edition can include or focus only on all these desiderata left out. Throw in Dipolog-Dapitan, Coron and Busuanga, Romblon, Clark and Subic, Olongapo and all the way up north to Pangasinan, Abra, and the Cordilleras. 

Still and all, it is a near-magnificent effort. The book has fine thematic essays, too: “Philippine City of Culture in the Ubiquitous Medium of Concrete” by Marian Pastor Roces; “Improving the Efficiency of Cities” by Nathaniel Von Einsedel; “The City and System D” by Benjamin dela Peña; and “Climate Change Urban Correctiveness” by Allinnettes Adigue.

Publisher Vernon Go writes:

“We set out to photograph the Philippines from above, with special focus on urban centers, to show the world and fellow Filipinos how the Philippines has grown from literally a bird’s-eye view. This is a rare endeavor undertaken in a single publication. And although obviously a hundred pages can only do so much, we believe we give… a unique perspective of the country.”

That the 2013 Philippines Yearbook does. The book architect ought to have the last word, after we say again to both Vernon and Paulo: Bravo!

“The revelations from this high perspective have been the beauty of the Philippines, which must be conserved; the speed at which our cities are growing and must be contained; and the potential for progress if only we can find a balanced formula for  making sure we expand and improve our cities without compromising the balance of nature or messing up our lives year to year.”