With All Saints-All Souls Day already passed, it was a perfect occasion for the Urban Roamer to visit a cemetery anew. This time, we are headed south to visit what is probably the most prominent and the largest burial area in the southern metropolis: the Manila Memorial Park.
The city of San Juan has a rich history in itself, dating back to the days of the Spanish colonial period when it was known before as San Juan del Monte or the town of St. John (the Baptist) of the mountain, owing to San Juan’s hilly elevation. Its storied past is something we will be getting to in the future from time to time but for starters, the Urban Roamer shall take you to the place where the city was born.
Contrary to the belief of some, the church of San Juan we are referring to here is not the one located near Pinaglabanan, the one officially named St. John the Baptist Church. Can’t blame them though since it is after the city’s Catholic patron saint which can cause confusion. Instead, the one we are referring to here is the one alongside F. Blumentritt Street at the old town center. Known before as the San Juan del Monte Church, it is now officially known as the Santuario del Santo Cristo.
In 2010, the government and partner agencies and organizations launched a massive drive to rehabilitate Estero de Paco as part of the greater and still-continuing campaign to rehabilitate Pasig River and its tributaries. As part of this drive, Paco Market, one of Paco’s iconic structures which is located alongside the Estero de Paco, was “redeveloped” as well as a showcase of the new Estero de Paco and, in a way, a new Paco as well.
More or less a decade has passed since the Estero de Paco project was initiated and by and large, it seems most of the major rehabilitation work has been completed. It’s an opportunity to look back at the past and see as well how much progress (or otherwise) this part of the city has experienced as the result of the rehabilitation.
After World War II, the Santo Domingo Church laid in ruins, as with many of the structures in Intramuros. With the difficulties of reconstruction, not only physically but also emotionally, the caretakers of the now destroyed structures were faced with a dilemma: should they rebuild in the Walled City or start anew elsewhere? Some, like the Archdiocese of Manila, opted to rebuild the Manila Cathedral from the ground up. The Dominicans, however, may have thought the pain of the loss they felt not only with Santo Domingo but also with the old University of Santo Tomas (UST) campus nearby was too much. Thus, they decided to leave the old Santo Domingo be and rebuild what would be the sixth iteration of the church in a new location up north.
That new location would be in Quezon City, the newly-established city and, in 1949, newly-proclaimed capital of the country. In particular, the Dominicans managed to snag a property in the midst of what was then a low-key commercial area right between the City of Manila and what should have been the National Government Center that is the Elliptical Circle and the quadrangles today. They were eager to get back on their feet and start anew and they envisioned Santo Domingo 6.0 as a reflection of postwar recovery while carrying the sense of grandeur that its predecessors had.
