My relationship with Mehan Garden

Some of the best years of my life were spent at the Metropolitan Theatre where Tita Conching (Ms. Conchita Sunico) was executive director. They were good and happy times. I was an actor of the musical theater. A lousy actor but over-zealous and proudly Waray. I would always be in the crowd scenes trying to upstage the rest of the crowd –crying louder than everyone when "Batibot" died or jumping highest during wedding scenes. And like most driven, focused actors kuno, I would be dead tired after rehearsals.

I would go with most of the crowd actors to Mehan Garden at the back of the Met where the late "Ata" reigned supreme in the darkness of the garden where he sold adobo, monay, saging, gulay in a long, old table that remained unbowed by cold nights, hot days and big-bellied hungry policemen.

Ata cooked the most delicious dinuguan. I would run to his food stall every night after rehearsals. Mehan Garden in the late ’70s to the early ’80s was mysterious, notorious and lascivious. In the middle of the garden was a circular cemented stage where we would lie down and watch the stars and dream about doing Hamlet and Trojan Women in Waray. They were funny times when we were rich with dreams that had to come true.

Pickpockets, petty criminals, weary and lonely gays, sinister characters and good-hearted fledgling actors abound in Mehan. Mehan in the dark was a colorful world on its own. It got busier as the nights got deeper.

But in many ways, it was a forgotten place.

It is with amusement that I watch from the sides the debate about the historic relevance of Mehan Garden. Everybody is right – everybody wants to preserve it. Everyone has a point to say. In my heart, my story, my relationship with Mehan is intact.

Manila Mayor Atienza is under fire because he wants to build the City College of Manila in the Mehan Garden. Quite frankly, I think the good Mayor is doing what is right – especially if you’re coming from what I last saw of the Garden.

Mayor Lito Atienza is a strong believer of the adage "ang taong hindi marunong lumingon sa kanyang pinanggalingan ay hindi makakarating sa kanyang paroroonan." He also believes that the past can mix harmoniously with the present and future.

The good mayor of Manila views the Mehan Garden as a historical site that promotes the preservation of the city’s cultural heritage. To do its preservation, he believes it should be done on a "people-centered approach."

The vision of the Mayor, which is to build the City College of Manila in the Mehan Garden is guided by research on studies made by UNESCO regarding the conservation of urban sites. In particular, one publication states that "...a great number of factors, both material and social, must be taken into account. The planning should not be restricted to measures aimed exclusively at the protection and conservation of cultural property. It must also take account of the needs, convenience and natural aspirations of the people actually living on the site, particularly as regards comfort and opportunities for progress, for it would be quite unfair to impose upon them the unnecessarily rigid styles and conditions of life of some past age."

Moreover, service to the people of Manila is of paramount importance to the Mayor. This also complies with Article 5 of the Venice Charter (International Charter for the Conservation and Restoration of Monuments and Sites) which states that "...the conservation of monuments is always facilitated by making use of them for socially useful purpose."

According to Mayor Atienza, "Building the City College of Manila in the Mehan Garden will not desecrate the place but will even enhance it. Most importantly, the project will solve two problems. One is that it will provide a more ideal campus environment for the students of CCM presently housed in the old PNB Building at Escolta. And because student life is injected to it, the Garden, currently dead due to years of neglect and deterioration, becomes a safer and more vibrant place. This is development and preservation working together. While we give free education to children of poor families of the City, we also restore Mehan Garden to such a state that the public who will walk through it will value it more and remember its past. This is preservation in the real world. We mark the special features of this rich, cultural heritage, while our society develops and grows."

I think Mayor Atienza deserves a chance to do what is right for Mehan Garden.