These are the thoughts of Prof. Fernando N. Zialcita, Ph.D. of the Cultural Heritage Studies Program, Ateneo de Manila University on the transfer of heritage to Bagac, Bataan
I got to meet Jerry Acuzar several years ago after he had bought the Enriquez Mansion on Hidalgo Street and had made it clear that he would transfer it to Bagac. Seeing that he was firm about transferring it, I tried to convince him to at least come out with a building that would be low-rise and would enhance the street. Like why not a health center specializing in popular medicine? This is Quiapo after all. As an added attraction there could be a Nazareno Museum with a chapel carrying His replica. Together with Ed Nuque, expert on heritage tourism, and Joy Mananghaya, heritage architect, we went several times to see him to ask if he could at least commission a market study on money-making uses – other than another generic tower like his President’s Tower on Timog -- for the vacant lot. We became friends. It turned out he loved my book on Philippine Ancestral Houses and had been wanting to meet me. On another occasion I brought with me Teresita Obusan who works closely with us at Bahay Nakpil, lives there, and actively tries to build an awareness of culture and history among our Quiapo neighbours.
Jerry invited me twice to Bagac. The first time I went with Ed, Joy and her husband Ral who is an urban planner. The second time I went with Tess Obusan. I was delighted that he was doing something to save endangered houses but was shocked by the following:
1. The houses are on an estate by the sea. No less than one of his assistants -- in an unguarded moment – told me that within the recent past, the sea did enter inland past the estate and reached the parish church!
2. The proportions of some of the houses were all wrong. The upper story came down too closely over the keystones of the ground floor windows. In one, just a few centimetres separated the keystones from the upper story
3. In one house, the azotea – in all its roofless expanse – opened at the front part of the house, close to the main door. Azoteas are not porches. They are located behind near the kitchen. They are service areas.
4. There is a bad habit of rusticating the walls of the ground story. That is, the adobe is left exposed and is even roughly hewn to emphasize the texture. I was shown photos of the transferred Enriquez House where this was done. Even the columns of the arcade in front of the ground floor main door were reconfigured as piles of unplastered adobe blocks. Absolutely wrong! 1) In traditional 19th century Manila houses, the adobe and the brick were covered with lime and given a blank finish so that there would be a contrast between the empty expanse of the ground floor walls and the intricacy of the carvings and texture of the upper story. 2) Also, adobe is a porous stone that retains water. Acuzar is perpetuating and reinforcing a dangerous tendency to leave adobe unplastered with lime. I think the issue of transferring heritage houses to Bagac has to be nuanced. In some cases, it may be the only alternative. In other cases, however, preservation and development could take place in situ. But he has to rise above the pull of material interests. He bought not only the Enriquez house, but also its lot!
Back to Quiapo. In the end Acuzar did raise another monstrous generic tower. I launched a letter of appeal to City Hall and circulated the letters. Hearing of this, Jerry called me up. I told him why I was opposing the tower. 1) I asked if he could at least replicate the former look of the Enriquez Mansion on the first two stories. 2) I also asked, for the sake of Manuel L. Quezon University, his alma mater, if he could commission a traffic plan for the street.
Well, the first two ground stories form an arcade over the sidewalk. But there was no serious intent to copy closely the original look. The cornice juts out exaggeratedly in a very clumsy way. The arcade pillars of reinforced concrete now have grey, adobe garments whereas originally they were round, lime-covered, white Tuscan columns. And the arcade now serves as parking for the cars of the residents rather than as a walk-through for pedestrians.
No alternative traffic plan has been provided by him for a street that has five (5) jeepney terminals and that is always clogged at almost all hours.
It is too bad that it should come to this. Jerry is actually a likeable person. We had instant rapport. Were it not for these disagreements over how heritage preservation should be done and what substitute to raise on Hidalgo, I could imagine us becoming good friends.
Years back Tess Obusan and I told him, ”So you insist on transferring the Enriquez House. Could you not do something for Quiapo, like buying all the remaining heritage houses along Hidalgo Street and developing them in situ? That would actualize Jimmy Laya’s dream of having a corridor of heritage structures in the heart of Manila that is well-preserved, has strong ambiance, and at the same time is commercially alive. Like Xintiandi in Shanghai or Calle de la Sierpe in Sevilla.” Would he do this? Could Saul become St. Paul? Bagac is his hometown. Understandably he wants to leave it a legacy. But how about Manila where he studied and which is our capital city? |
