Respect Jose Rizal

A flier fell suddenly on my lap. It showed a night shot of a towering condominium behind the Jose Rizal monument on Rizal Park. It took me aback, made me study it closely. Then my eyes traveled far into the horizon, past the thick lush leaves of a tree outside my window. All this time a question ran rings around my mind: Do they have to do that? Have the developers in our country lost all sense of their own history? Is there no more effort from the Manila government to uphold and honor some small signs of what Manila used to be? How great it was? What a wonderful delight to the eyes?

I don’t remember Manila before World War II, when it was at its most beautiful. I remember what my mother and grandmother used to say about how wonderful it was to walk down Dewey Boulevard, now Roxas Boulevard. I remember Manila in the 1940s and ’50s, when I was a little girl. The war, they said, had ravaged the city. We lived a block down from Dewey Boulevard and every morning my yaya would take me for a walk on the sea wall.

The water then was clear aquamarine and you could see little schools of fish swimming. It was not murky the way it is now.   There were bright orange rusty pieces of steel in the sea, leftover from the war, and they rose in contrast to the beautiful aquamarine of the water. It was colorful, not gray the way it is always today.

There were not many tall buildings then. I remember the old apartment houses. They were no more than five floors though they seemed high enough with their high ceilings and large windows. They were spacious and cool inside, not the crowded units that these new tall condominiums offer today.

I look at the flier to find out where it is. Why is it behind the Rizal monument? It is behind where the Jai-a-Lai building used to be. It’s not even on Taft Avenue. It is beside the Casino Español (where my wedding reception was held), behind the San Vicente de Paul church on what used to be San Marcelino Street. That’s the church where I got married, following the footsteps of my parents who also married there. That was a beautiful small old church and continues to be but it has turned into Adamson University, which took over the place and also St. Theresa’s College across the street.

This is a small street. They are building a 40-story building? They will create a major traffic jam there. Can’t they re-think this?

Once upon a time that entire area was beautiful, including when the Jai-a-Lai building was up. It was the scene of many high society events. I remember once going there with my mother and a family friend, Mr. Krivenko. I think I was 11 then. He asked me if I wanted a million dollars. Surprised, I said, sure! The waiter brought me an elaborate red and green drink. It was called the Million Dollars. It was my first public alcoholic drink. That’s all gone now. Only memories remain.

Build a 40-story condominium behind the Rizal monument? How can this be? In Paris, one is not allowed to mar monuments with tall structures. People must always have a free, liberal view of the monument. Monuments are sacred. They are tributes to the people they commemorate. Jose Rizal was the greatest of all Filipinos. He was extremely intelligent. He talked back to the Spanish colonizers. He was idolized around Asia for his courage. The Spanish ordered him executed. He was shot by Filipino soldiers following the orders of the Spanish military, who were also following the orders of the Spanish friars. Did we forget that? His bones are in the monument. Can we have a bit of reverence around here? Or have we lost all reverence for our national hero?

My cousins and I are descendants of Jose Rizal. We are all great-grandchildren of his brother and sisters. We are left with the task of protecting the esteemed memory of our great-granduncle. 

I have to ask the government of Manila — please do not allow such a tall, modern structure to dwarf our national hero’s monument. Please give this monument the reverence and the honor it deserves. Jose Rizal’s execution led to the freedom of all Filipinos. Please let us honor not only his monument but the monuments of all those who became our national heroes. Let us teach the young people to love and honor them as well. It is the least we can do.

If you must build something where the old Jai-a-Lai used to be, make it a shopping mall with a historical flavor no more than five stories high. Recreate the mood of the Old Manila. You can call it The Old Manila or if you want call it Bagumbayan but evoke a mood that continues the mood set by Intramuros and extend it beyond the monument to respect and enhance the monument. Then you will enfold some flavor of Philippine history into it and introduce young people to our history. 

That’s all I ask for. I am not extending my request to all of Manila. I am just asking for the protection of the Rizal monument. Surround it with historical flavor, please. Do not build any towering condominiums around it. Then you will do honor to our national hero, Jose Protacio Rizal, to the memory of the Old Manila, an elegant, esteemed place, and to Philippine history.

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