Come Valentines or All Saints Day, this part of Manila is bustling with activity. Then again, this particular area is always busy with commercial activity, though not as frantic as the aforementioned occasions.
Of course, I am referring here to Manila’s “Flower Market” or the “Bulaklakan ng Maynila,” but known more to locals as “Dangwa:” the name of the passenger bus transport company which used to transport the flowers there which come all the way from the Cordillera highlands in the northern part of the country. While Dangwa no longer seems to ply to and from the city, the memory of these buses carrying the flowers to be sold persist in the city’s collective memory.
Last weekend, the Internet and Manila’s heritage community was rocked with a shocking development: the demolition of a heritage structure along San Marcelino Street in Ermita, Manila near Adamson University. The structure in question being the old headquarters of MERALCO, or the Manila Electric Rail and Light Company as it was first known.
First established in 1903 from the franchise given by the American government to an American businessman named Charles Swift to operate the city’s planned electric tramways or tranvias, MERALCO established its first offices in San Marcelino 2 years later, serving as a depot of sorts for the tranvias they operate.
The MERALCO Head Office in San Marcelino during its heyday (courtesy of www.ivanhenares.com)
Having been elevated into prominence as Manila’s (as well as the country’s) definitive landmark by the American colonial era, it comes as no surprise that Rizal Park a favored spot for parades, athletic events, and special events like the famed Manila Carnival. These events used to be held at what was known as Wallace Field, located east of the Rizal Monument, approximately where the Binhi sculpture & the Heidelberg Fountain are now located.
Fast-forward to the year 1946. A year had passed since Manila suffered from utmost destruction brought about the by the war, more particularly during the Battle for Manila. As a a nation was trying to get its feet up from war, it was also gearing for eventual independence from the United States as was agreed upon almost 11 years past as part of the Tydings-McDuffie Law. There was one problem: the original intended venue for the ceremony was the Legislative Building, and it was still being reconstructed at the time, not to mention it being too small to hold an anticipated large crowd who would like to witness this historic event.
the carabao and tamaraw monuments mark the original spot of the Independence Grandstand, not the Grandstand that we see today contrary to what some believe. otherwise it would have taken a really long rope to raise the Philippine flag from the grandstand. refer to the video below
Not many people would realize it, but Rizal Park is one of Manila’s best examples of how much the city has changed in the span of just over a century. Originally, and this was up to the end of the Spanish colonial era, Manila’s bayshore was only up to what is now the gutter of … Read more
