Category Archive for: lugar

komentaryo

(mis)handling heritage

I am the last person to defend SM, and I do think we’ve got enough malls and condos in this country. But one of the first things I asked when the petition to save the Philam Life Theater began to gain ground was: why?

And no, not why did SMDC buy the Philam Life property, but why was this property sold at all?

Yet that doesn’t seem to be a question that many people are asking. Instead we are asking questions about why SMDC needs to build more condos, why it needs to build more malls. Instead we throw expletives at Henry Sy and his empire, and say he is greedy and nothing else, forgetting that while the latter might be true, what drives this greed is the fact that they can afford it. And that the government allows it.

This is not to say it’s right, as it is to ask: who allows oligarchs to buy this country’s lands and services? Why is it even acceptable that basic services are owned by one, two, three families? Whose fault is it that our oldest structures, the ones that are monuments to our past, are being sold, one after the other? Why is the only other option for these structures, neglect and forgetting?

And who is blameless in this oft repeated enterprise of a piece of heritage being lost to time or capitalists, and us all raising our fists too late?

read the rest here.

komentaryo

Tourism and the poor Filipino face

In January, the Department of Tourism (DOT) celebrated the 6.09% rise in the number of tourists to the Philippines. That’s 25,000 more people who have come to visit this country where everything’s more fun. That’s 436,079 tourists who landed in good ol’ Pinas in January alone.

It gives me goosebumps. Far from the good kind.

Because it would take an amount of delusion to think this all good, and only the naïve would think those numbers equal to development or change. This is not to dispute those numbers, neither is it to question those online surveys that say Boracay is the Best Beach in Asia. This is to ask questions borne of actually traveling this country, and observing tourism on the ground.

This is to ask: have you heard of the “poor Filipino face?” (more…)

komentaryo

the death of us all

in conversations with my Pinay friend Sunshine who left for the US five years ago, and who came to visit in the middle of January, tears were necessarily in order. what was surprising was that while these would be shed in the first two hours or so for the distance we had kept and the things we had survived separately, the rest of our time together would be spent crying about nation, if not shaking our heads in dismay.

by the end of it i found that what needed to be articulated, what needed to come from me, what Sunshine needed to hear, was this: Catholicism, as we know it in this country, is the death of us. (more…)

komentaryo

bad vibes for NAIA 1 rehab

for a PNoy government that talks about the matuwid na daan, which is to say doing things correctly and properly and justly, they sure know how to reveal themselves to be on some dirt road.

so yes, NAIA 1 is the worst airport in the world, i know that, and i will not pretend otherwise. but of course it will take international disgust over the airport for some change to happen, and in October a world-renowned team composed of Cobonpue-Layug-Pineda unveils a plan, one that’s aesthetic yes, but also real and concrete, i couldn’t even imagine that they thought this up and ignored completely the structural and electricomechanical (!) needs of the renovation.

but this is what the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) Secretary Mar Roxas wants us to believe, as he defends the decision to go with an architectural team from the Leandro V. Locsin and Associates (LVLA) for the NAIA 1 renovation, unceremoniously dropping the Cobonpue team. Roxas says:

“They <the LVLA> are in possession of the ‘as designed’ and ‘as built’ plans and blueprints of the airport. LVL’s firm has insights that will be of valuable help in minimizing disruption to operations, as well as shorten the time the rehabilitation will take,” Roxas explained in a text message.

In particular, Roxas said LVL knows the exact location of the duct works, risers, pipes, water drainages and other electro-mechanical configurations of the facility.

according to the DOTC (it’s unclear if Roxas himself said this), the LVLA also “had a distinct advantage over any other architectural or engineering firm in the country because its founder, the late Locsin, was Terminal 1’s original designer.”

so hold on. LVLA had the advantage because its founder, National Artist for Architecture Leandro V. Locsin, dead since 1994, designed the original NAIA 1? the LVLA is being unilaterally chosen — with no plan revealed to the public as of yet — because they have the blueprints of the airport and therefore know where the pipes are? because they know where the pipes are? 

por dios y por santo.

where has common sense gone? the current LVLA, as with any other architectural and design team, would only be looking at NAIA 1’s blueprints, yes? and let’s say members of the Locsin team that put together the NAIA 1 in 1973-1974 were still alive (of course in their 80s now), even they would only be looking at blueprints and old plans, too, yes? pray tell, how would LVLA be any different from other design teams wanting to renovate the NAIA 1?

there’s obviously so much more to the DOTC’s decision to let go of the Cobonpue-Layug-Pineda team, and it reeks of kamag-anak / kaibigan / ka-barilan possibilities if you ask me. lucky for the DOTC, the LVLA website’s down and there’s no existing list online of who its architects are. it would’ve made for a fascinating task of connecting the dots straight to Malacanang Roxas office (i hear the connection between him and the Locsins are legendary).

but also there’s this. for a PNoy government that demands our support and understanding, they sure know how to put an end to any form of volunteerism from willing citizens. Cobonpue-Layug-Pineda had been working on the NAIA 1 rehabilitation and renovation plan for the past eight (8!) months. and they find out they’re not part of the project only upon the the announcement that the LVLA was the DOTC’s chosen firm.

and as if that isn’t bad enough, the Cobonpue-Layug-Pineda team are made to suffer soundbites from Roxas, who says that function was higher in their list of priorities than having the airport look nice; and from MIAA General Manager Jose Angel Hornedo who says they didn’t sign a contract with the Cobonpue team.

aba mga ser. the Cobonpue-Layug-Pineda team put together that plan because they were asked by the members of PNoy’s Cabinet. puro katrabaho ninyo ang mga ito diba? Trade Secretary Gregory Domingo, Budget and Management Secretary Butch Abad, former Tourism Secretary Alberto Lim, Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima and Communications Secretary Ricky Carandang? these four requested that the Cobonpue-Layug-Pineda team work on the NAIA 1 redesign. the government asked them to work on that redesign. and this team agreed to work on it, for free.

kaya po walang kontrata mga ser.

and just because something looks nice doesn’t mean it isn’t functional. why do you even look down on the Cobonpue-Layug-Pineda team in this way, Sec. Roxas?

in the end this also reeks of an utter lack of professionalism in the halls of Malacanang. it also reveals how little this PNoy government values creativity and hard work, how little it values the time and energy spent by its own citizens wanting to help out for free. that they can even do this to the Cobonpues and Layugs and Pinedas of this country, few as they are na nga, is beyond me.

by the way, this team was also working within a P1B-peso budget for the complete interior and exterior renovation of the NAIA 1 — way cheaper than the government plan that would cost P1.6B P1.16B (!!) pesos to renovate only the airport’s interiors.

PNoy invokes matuwid na daan. let’s begin with admitting the real reasons behind the decision to go with the LVLA, shall we? otherwise, Roxas the DOTC and Malacanang just prove they’re on a dark dreary road, that’s as dirty as we can imagine.

kultura

lives were lost

we should not forget. regardless of the success that is the distribution of Hacienda Luisita among farmer-beneficiaries.

Mark Savaltus' My Farmville (2009)
Mark Savaltus' My Farmville (2009)