By Ma. Stella F. Arnaldo / Special to the BusinessMirror
HERITAGE conservationists are urging the City of Manila and businessman Enrique K. Razon to keep public open spaces and expand the parks in the city to create a healthy balance between the environment, the residents’ well-being and economic development.
In a statement issued by the Heritage Conservation Society (HCS) sent to the BusinessMirror, the group said that, while it welcomed plans to redevelop the Rizal Memorial Sports Complex (RMSC), these proposals “must note its adaptive reuse, including keeping all the public open spaces, especially the football and baseball fields. Commercial activities can be built into the facility without diminishing open spaces, where people can engage in sports, participate in events and concerts, and enjoy themselves.”
It stressed that building high-rise buildings and malls in the Harrison district, in particular, “will only aggravate the traffic and the stress on public infrastructure, from water and power, to sewage and drainage, in the area.”
The group also cited climate experts’ warnings that Metro Manila is now “a heat island due to limited green and open spaces resulting to more floods, and now small cyclones, which happened just a few months ago. This illustrates the importance of preserving what little we have left of the city’s open spaces.”
On November 23 Manila Mayor Joseph E. Estrada announced plans to partner with the Razon Group to develop RSMC into a commercial center anchored on a mall. Razon is chairman of the International Container Terminal Services Inc. and Bloomberry Resorts Corp., which owns Solaire Resort and Casino.
“As one of the last surviving prewar structures, the RMSC remains an important landmark not only for the City of Manila, but for the thousands of athletes who have called it home for many generations. It deserves to be preserved as a sports facility and heritage landmark, dedicated to the people of Manila,” the HCS said.
It added that the sports complex “is one of the few open spaces left in Manila that is a consistent venue for community building and youth development. Its preservation, in fact, would provide Manila residents access to affordable sports facilities and public open spaces, which supports President Duterte’s fight against drugs. Encouraging young people to devote time to sports—and providing them the space for it—is a step toward a drug-free Manila.”
The plan to set up another mall in Manila has been met with a lot of criticism from its residents, conservationists, history experts and netizens who want the city government to protect and conserve the 82-year-old structure, instead. A petition has been making the rounds of the Internet to save the edifice, designed by Architect Juan Arellano.
Under Republic Act 10066, or the National Cultural Heritage Act of 2009, structures older than 50 years old cannot be demolished. Any modifications on such structures have to follow strict guidelines set by the National Historical Commission of the Philippines.
In a news statement issued on Wednesday, the Razon Group said it had been been offering to redevelop and revitalize the RMSC “through a preservation and urban-renewal project.” Recognizing the importance of the RMSC in the country’s sports history, the group added that it “plans to maintain, as well as fortify the [structure’s] façade.”
The HCS agrees with the preservation of the façade as a necessary first step. “However, keeping just the façade is not true conservation, given that most of the prewar elements are intact. The entire space has a flow that needs to be respected, and this is where adaptive reuse will help in upgrades from the original intent, that is, assigning an up-to-date use in the original space.”
The group stressed that “redesigning the Harrison District to generate fresh investment anchored around a revitalized RMSC and expanded park spaces in that area, will create a more balanced environment and progressive economy for the people of the city.”
HCS also agreed that the City of Manila should pursue a path of redevelopment. “But it should also keep in mind that other public values of a healthy environment and the preservation of our culture and history should go hand in hand with economic development.”
In its path to redevelopment, it said, “Manila needs open and green spaces, not more concrete slabs.”