The Landmark Festival Mall

Ohhh...it is sprawling...

So nice that they preserved the replica of a statue by Dr. Jose Rizal, as well as the facade of the old center 

http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/462765/art-deco-outside-cobras-inside-1920s-building-saved-in-muntinlupa

That river is an actual river running through the land...

A bit saddened to remember that this area was filled with big old trees...
but amazing to see this area so huge...especially this outdoor park setting.

Security in Silang

Took this photo at the Silang Municipal Hall last Monday, Laguna Day and Jose Rizal's birthday.
This was about a minute after missing an opportunity to shoot(a photo with my phone)...a photo of the Mayor outside her office, chatting briefly with constituents right next to where I stood.  It would have been one of those candid shots a la Time, Newsweek or Life (if you remember that mag you are old like me).
I do not know her and did not seek an audience with her, I was there for a transaction. Since I am apolitical and do not have friends nor close relatives in politics, the brief encounter was interesting in iterms of the sensation I felt.  From the way an employee waved me aside saying "dadaan si Mayor" to the way those who wanted to talk to her hunched humbly before her (well she is tall so maybe I exaggerate)...it is evident that change in little towns from reverence of their leaders at near-royal status can be...well..tough. The fact is theirs, like many ruling families in many other municipalities, has led this town forever. 

I must say however, I left Silang City Hall satisfied that theirs struck me as a decent office. This as opposed to other unkempt city offices where the employees, in dress and manner just reek of...corruption. Yes even out on the streets of Silang town proper, cars--2 different cars at 2 different times that morning, stopped to yield to ours going through! It was surprising because the courtesy was obvious...they didn't have to yield but they did.  I don't know if it being Rizal's birthday had anything at all to do with it, but whatever...I salute whoever drove those two (both red) cars.

I would like to know if the building itself is the original munisipyo from the time of Rizal (when was it founded? Climbing its wooden steps feels warm &fuzzy like entering a bahay na bato of the past. Also, transacting with them was fairly pleasant; decent and legitimate.

That was Monday. Tuesday evening, a terrible thing happened in one of Silang's up and coming villages. Wednesday morning, I heard about it. Thieves had broken into a home and shot the father of the family,killing him. By Thursday one of four suspects was  caught. By Friday, the other three were arrested. Incredibly, by today, we hear news that the three shall soon be released "for lack of a warrant". Apparently the police report was also bungled, with inaccuracies initially.

So, mayor, mayor in the hall...is your city one of the fairest in the land at all? The frequency of such similar crimes is common knowledge now. Please! Fix it!!

Manila, Manila

Manila City Hall Clock tower as seen from a building on UN Avenue

 I take it back---I do miss Manila after all. Not this Manila around the City Hall with squalor included...

but this Manila Bay...smell (or stench) and all.
40 years of life in Sangley Point Cavite, Las Pinas, Pasay, and Paranaque plus a strong olfactory sense combine to base my life's memories in this west area. Memories triggered by...this bay's air.

Dragon boat training

Manila Bay; Cavite on the horizon

     I've raved about Santa Rosa, Laguna, and claim not to miss Manila. It is true, I, and as I found out, other friends who have relocated, do not feel the need to go to METRO Manila.

Inside Fort Santiago

      Old Manila, I did not realize I missed. Until a return to Fort Santiago and the walls of Intramuros this week.  From a childhood of picnics with family in the grounds of the Cultural Center by the water, getting there by walking on Taft Avenue; to my twenties when I would go to the Fort on spontaneous drives, through weddings, events, tours...Intramuros is my Manila.  The random trips in my twenties were actually whenever I felt down and in need of solitude, a nearby escape.

      

    Strange that the history of dungeons, the captivity, colonial rule and martyrdom, were my refuge...and provided me a return to a feeling of ''freedom".   

     I still fantasize (albeit overly-romantically---life wasn't exactly easy especially if you were an Indio; it is always the toilet system in Casa Manila that reminds of how satisfied I am living in this century). Nick Joaquin's stories add fuel to this fantasy...

---anyway, as I was saying I still fantasize about how it would have been like...

    to reach Manila via the Pasig river the way Rizal did from Laguna.  

The grounds certainly look much prettier than my husband and I recall. We each have our own sentimental memories of visits as children with family, weddings, events and school tours...most of all, memories of ...dates with other people!

    Now my trips back to the old walled city have added memories...With a child experiencing it for the first   time..."everything old is new again".  It is joyful to hear such a young one exclaim "I love the Old Town!"  She named it such and it was she who begged to "go back to the Old Town".  It was nice hearing her beg to return to the bay "to see the sun set into the water".  Manila may be ugly, unplanned, and impoverished in parts. It is still my Manila. I'm still happy in Santa Rosa, but the familiarity of this old city, the knowledge (and stench, yike) of its streets in my blood make me. Maybe, in my forties, roots and the sense of belonging someplace have finally mattered more than ever.

Jose Rizal would have been 151

...on June 19.  Here are snapshots of his shrine in his hometown of Calamba, just about three toll exits away from the Eton exit, through a mess of tricycles and jeepneys, past the SM Calamba and sticking to the right side of the road, over a railroad track you can easily miss (because of the shanties, carts, people, vendors right ON the tracks); a dangerous crossing. 

I should have but didn't have the heart to capture the mess in photos.  It's a sorry range of emotions, feeling inspired by, proud of, and interested in Jose Rizal's life while wondering what exactly he would write about the town now.  On the way, there are interesting old structures still well-maintained, like the Farmacia Lina, but generally, a drive through this Burgos st. is...I have no words.

Inside the house, one of the first exhibits describes the place as all ricefields.
There is also a photo of the railroad track as it appeared in his day or a little past his time...with the backdrop of Mt. Makiling, the tracks are on bare land.

One of the highlights of showing children replicas of bahay-na-bato like this one, is when they see the wooden-benches of the toilet.  Just before that, usually the stone stove or adobe ovens elicit oohs, but the toilets always win the most ahhs.  And then of course, the kid loved the bucket and well.

I came here when I was young but only now have I learned that the  original house was destroyed and this is a replica. It doesn't matter.   Rizal's spirit is here and inspires me to read the Noli and Fili again, out-of-school.

 

sunny in Sta. Rosa

     Sorry to hear about flooding in Quezon City today, and suspension of classes.  The news says it is due to rains brought by the tropical storm Butchoy, which coincided with a high tide.

    The sun is shining over here and I am trying to see about visiting Jose Rizal's house in Calamba. It's his birthday tomorrow.

‘Rizal maps’ given to public schools in Laguna

‘Rizal maps’ given to public schools in Laguna

Where can I get myself one of these maps?    Senor Pepe, would you know?

http://filipinoscribbles.wordpress.com/category/provincia-de-la-laguna/

Salamat po to anyone who can answer.

Happy 150th Birthday Jose Rizal!

  
     I searched in vain for some ceremony or activity to attend in the Santa Rosa area on Jose Rizal's birthday.  There were many parties, concerts, a run, film showings, all in Metro Manila.  Other provinces had their ceremonies, and I never even got around to finding out if there was anything going on at the bayan ng Santa Rosa. 

     My plan was to actually avoid Calamba on Sunday, June 19, knowing the President would lead rites there, and that there probably would be activities all day.

     By 3 pm, I was itching to really go SOMEWHERE close, feeling strangely celebratory.  I think the excitement had something to do with just BEING in Laguna, being near Calamba.  We went to Calamba, exiting Bgy Don Jose, Paseo area via Eton. This drive to the town center takes around 20 minutes. I was hoping that museum hours would somehow be extended on this special day.  I had assumed it would be open today, Monday, too.  After all, it is a National Holiday.  Why wouldn't the Rizal Shrine hold special hours?

    Well, festive, it was, by the church, which is next to Jose Rizal's ancestral home. There was the familiar smell of a marketplace, even if the Calamba tiangge and public markets were away, near SM Calamba.  There was also the smell of oil frying fishballs, but it wasn't good as usual. It was like some kind of cheap, greasy, oil, not appetizing at all.  People were milling everywhere as mass went on...as well as people positioned among vendors. I saw a small hunchback walking in front of me, and a crippled man sitting by the church gate, one palm up asking for alms, one palm grasping  cane.  I bought some sampaguita from one of five vendors outside; I said no thank you to friendly teenagers selling mini replicas of the famous giant palayok--a major landmark in Calamba (which we failed to see on the trip).  The beggars outside the church, the street food, the wares--all the requisite provincial town plaza elements were there. But I was unrealistically expecting more "Rizal's 150th birthday" souvenirs, I guess.  Like the cupcakes I saw a child holding at the Luneta shrine, shown on the news later in the evening.  Then again, I would prefer puto or kakanin.

    There were crowds within the house's grounds too, but the guard told me the museum was closed. I had wanted to just take a photo with the boy Rizal in the garden...but gave it up. The rain continued and it was muddy. Strange again, I still enjoyed the brief stop and walk in the rain. 

    I guess we had missed the parade of floats, as they drove by us, paper and flowers soaked, wilted...but it's alright.  Living here, we have our pick of days to return to Rizal's Shrine now.  Another good thing about living in Santa Rosa :-)

    Anyway, this is what happened in the morning of Sunday:

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