Saving Silliman

When asked, I proudly say that I studied at the U.P. in Diliman. Just as proudly, many Filipinos make the fact known that they completed their university degrees at Silliman. This university, located in Dumaguete, carries just as much weight as the state institution or any other Manila-based school, both academically as well as historically. Silliman University is, in fact, older than the U.P. by seven years. It celebrated its centennial last August 2001. That celebration, however, was slightly muted by a threat to the heritage-rich physical setting of its campus.

Dumaguete is a small picturesque city. It reigns as the provincial capital of Negros Oriental and is known mainly as a university town. It sits and has sat calmly by the sea since 1734, when it was christened with its current name (derived from ‘daguit’, Visayan for kidnapped – a past legacy of marauding southerners). The town’s peaceful ambience was partly the reason for it being chosen by American Presbyterian missionaries looking for a site for a school to train local boys in industrial trades.

Silliman University is named after a philanthropist from New York, Dr. Horace B. Silliman. The good doctor (of laws) gifted the mission with $10,000 for the school, which was established in August of 1901, barely two years after the county’s "turnover" from Spain. From that point, Silliman University has grown from a small training facility to a 61-hectare campus offering 21 academic programs. The initial schoolroom full of boys has, over the last century, turned to over 7,000 students from all over the Philippines and a few hundred from overseas.

The Silliman campus sits on one end of an arched waterfront. The settlement on the water’s edge and verdant campus form the defining landscape of this humanly-scaled city. The university students and the local populace make regular use of the promenade, especially towards the evenings (like we Manilenos used to do at the Luneta).

The town can still be toured by horse-drawn carriage within two hours, says Marian Lim, the university’s information and publications director. Ms. Lim wrote this column recently to bring some worrying news, that of a project that may compromise the city’s and the university’s architectural and landscape heritage. A new fast-ferry terminal is being planned by the Philippine Ports Authority for construction at a portion of the waterfront.

The terminal (an extension of an existing facility) is being questioned by concerned citizens. In question is the facility’s viability as well as its impact on Dumaguete’s waterfront – in aesthetic and heritage terms, and subsequent social acceptability. The PPA has called consultations and given presentations on its proposals last year, but the university’s marine scientists and researchers, aside from other city stakeholders, are not convinced that the proposal works best in terms of heritage conservation nor of functional efficacy in addressing the needs of transport.

The issue has been covered in further exchanges between the PPA and the Alliance for Responsible Development, an umbrella organization opposed to the PPA’s proposal since the first plans were mulled in 1997. The group and other concerned citizens have taken the PPA to task for a perceived lack of transparency and lingering doubts about the project’s environmental impact.

The PPA has, as reported by the group, asked for a waiver from the Environmental Management Bureau’s requirement for an environmental impact assessment (EIA) for the necessary ECC. Under the EIS system, Ms. Lim correctly reports, the project proponent must seek social acceptance of the project. That means that the public must be fully informed about all plans, impacts and details on the project so that they can meaningfully participate in the process and ensure their stake in its sustainability and success.

PPA have accused stakeholders of sentimentalism. They point to the fact that most of the leaders of these groups are Silliman alumni. The Dumaguete City Hall, we are informed, has taken to seek the blockage of any attempt to have the Silliman Campus declared as a historic site. All this despite the confirmation of an official position from the provincial office of the Department of Trade and Industry that the economic engine of Dumaguete comes from its being a University Town. (Other major universities are St. Paul College, the state college, Central Visayas Polytechnic College and the Foundation University.)

Stakeholders and the university have questioned the PPA’s scheme citing shifting transport patterns (fast-ferry vs. bus and ferry hybrids), as well as provided alternative schemes with the help of the local chapter of the United Architects of the Philippines. The stakeholder’s schemes are, in fact, less expensive to build, make less impact on the city’s landscape heritage and would bring a bigger profit margin to the PPA. So what gives?

The PPA operates at the national level. It looks at only one part of an infrastructural system that should benefit the parts as well as the whole of the country. The challenge seems to be co-ordinating the efforts of national bodies, local governments and citizens of the places affected without compromising heritage, social cohesiveness and plain common sense. The problem of Silliman, the city of Dumaguete and government agencies such as the PPA is reflected in similar cases around the Philippines, those involving the relationship of campus developments versus the needs and impact of ever-expanding urban areas and populations. (Diliman’s campuses come to mind – a subject for a future article.)

What always seems to be lacking is the larger perspective of comprehensive land-use planning. What is constantly missing is a common vision for each urban district, city or metropolis that is shared by citizens and government. What defies logic oftentimes is the propensity of government to undertake highly-expensive (or dis-proportionately expensive) projects that have less costly alternatives which have less detrimental environmental and social impact and are more aesthetically pleasing.

Back in Manila, we are still facing the question of old Manila’s waterfront. The PTA is still pursuing the discredited Boardwalk project. Again, it seems to be saner to spend a quarter-billion pesos to solve more urgent problems than to add another white elephant to the city’s embattled landscape.

What goes for Manila, goes for Dumaguete… and so too other cities nationwide. I do hope that we do not pay the price of losing our sense of place, our heritage or our rationality… in this constant battle to lend logic to our cities and provinces along with sanity to local and national governance.

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Feedback is welcome. Please email the writer at citysensephilstar@hotmail.com.