The Philippine Online Chronicles

I hate to say this but we are perhaps the only country in this region that virtually has no connection with our recent past. Other than a mention or two about it in books and magazine articles, no significant structure --- save for a few dilapidated ones --- from the pre and post war era is left standing. Edifices that would have reminded Manilenos and its visitors of the city's glorious past.

Call it an oversight if you want, I prefer to call it disrespect.

Compare this with the former war-torn countries of Vietnam and Cambodia, where people were able to preserve most of the remnants of their French colonial past in the capital cities such as the tree-lined boulevards of Saigon (Now Ho Chi Minh city) --- in spite of the communist regime's hatred for their former French masters.

Or in Shanghai --- the site of the most dizzying pace of construction in the last decade --- with its rows upon rows of beautifully preserved and well-maintained buildings along what is then and now known as "The Bund."

That stretch of street along the Huangpu River has since become the city's most famous sight, attracting millions of tourists from all over.

One of the most glaring acts of wanton destruction of a building with historical significance is the tearing down of the old Jai Alai building along Taft Avenue. Constructed in the 1950s and designed by eminent American architect, Welton Becket, it was the finest example of what was known then as the Art Deco style of architecture.

I couldn't count the number of times I've passed by this old building where the traditional Basque game --- once touted as the fastest game on earth --- was played to the cheers of the betting crowd. No, I've never bet on, nor have even watched a single game of Jai Alai. I have never been a betting man. The Jai Alai building was dear to me because I went to Adamson University,  located just behind the Art Deco building, in the early 80s.

And there were many times when I would bump into a classmate or a professor coming out of the building after placing their bets.

Amidst pleas from the folks of the preservation society to spare one of Manila's famous landmarks from the wrecking ball, the principal architect of the building's demise, former mayor and certified Pacquiao groupie Lito Atienza, had the structure torn down --- ostensibly to make way for a multi-million peso Hall of Justice building.

Why he would want a separate building for dispensing justice when the country's Supreme Court is only two blocks away, is beyond me.

That was in the year 2000. The last time I passed by the place --- which was last week --- I had yet to see a single wall rise up among the scattered, and now rusting, steel beams on the still-empty lot.

Another of the city's familiar landmark that hasn't escaped the former mayor's appetite for destruction is the old Mehan Garden beside the Manila City Hall. The only patch of greenery on this side of Manila is now home to the Manila city college, and a paid parking building.

Don't get me wrong here, I'm all for progress. It is after all, inevitable, what with the ever-expanding population of the city. But really... does it have to come with a steep price? And how many more of these monuments from a glorious era when Manila was THE pearl of the Orient will have to be leveled just to satisfy the whims of a politician?

Economics is another factor that spelled doom for these entertainment houses. The old-style theater building --- along with its cousins along Avenida Rizal --- has fallen on hard times. Street-level, stand-alone movie houses, seem to have no place in a modern urban setting; where land is at a premium and maximizing the use of limited space has become the norm rather than the exception.

You'd be hard-pressed to find any of them left standing in the city, save for a few second-run movie houses in some dingy neighborhood --- or in some far-flung barrio where those box-like SM malls have yet to lay its foundations. Somehow, showing one movie at a time for weeks on end isn't as economically sound as it was during its time --- no big thanks to pirated DVDs. Lastly, the advent of the multi-theater cineplexes inside the air-conditioned confines of the malls finally sealed the fate of these places.

This is --- or was --- the old Galaxy theater along Rizal Avenue, or Avenida, as Manilans lovingly call it. One of the last surviving structures designed by the late National Artist Pablo S. Antonio, Sr. that marked the first use of modern architectural style in the country. The theater would have been unceremoniously torn down years ago to make way for a high-rise condominium had it not been for the timely intervention of the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA) that saved the old landmark from suffering the same fate as the Avenue theater, just a block away.

Now the developers --- who by the way, are also the Galaxy's original owners --- will have to preserve AND incorporate the old theater's original facade and lobby into the design of the new structure. And only upon the NCCA's approval of the new building design will they be allowed  to build by the city.

Above is the theater's original signage, as viewed when coming from the direction of C.M. Recto Avenue. This is the first sign I always see in the countless times I've patronized the theater during my own heydays. I still remember the bright neon lights of the marquee announcing what was showing; it has long since dimmed like the others before it. And the once grand lobby that featured a winding staircase --- a unique feature in its time --- is now a hollowed-out version of its former self.

Notably, there is another theater --- also designed by Pablo Antonio --- that is still standing. And like the Galaxy Theater, it is also in an advanced state of decay. The old Lyric Theater in Escolta was one of only two theaters along what was then, the country's most fashionable street --- predating trendy Makati by several decades.

It was also the theater that I patronized regularly because the place was seldom, if ever, packed to the rafters --- even when showing blockbusters like "Jaws" and the first "Star Wars" movie.

The other movie house, the Capitol Theater, has long since gone the way of the dodo --- its once proud structure reduced to a pile of concrete rubble. In its place now stands a parking lot, if I'm not mistaken.

Richard Tuason-Sanchez Bautista, resident architect of the NCCA, couldn't have said it better when he quipped: “These buildings are examples of how we evolved as a people, they stand as representations of how we did things back then and how we do things now. If and only when the people realize this, they will take pride in these buildings and they will take care of them”

Photo 1: from http://www/fotosearch.com/clt002/q650/

Photo 2: by Rudy Lao

___