Escaping to Baguio doesn’t sound tempting any more as it is almost as hot and just as bad as Manila in terms of sullied air and urban congestion. Boracay is powerless to cater to all the escapists’ needs while visiting any place further south requires one to wear Kevlar or undergo Special Forces training before being deployed in any of the resorts there.
Years ago, there was this place that was the very definition of summer: Balara Filters. It was the postcard-pretty, day-trip destination of the Fifties and the Sixties, right up there with the Taal Vista Lodge, Hinulugang Taktak and the beaches of Matabungkay. These other places have now disappeared or been overrun by urbanization and commercialization. The Balara Filters remains mostly intact but neglected. Hopefully soon, this fantastic place will once again provide accessible relief for the city’s suffering millions.
Yes, windmills. This was the first of many hidden features Joel and his colleagues took me to see a few weeks ago. This windmill stands a few hundred meters past the old Balara gateway, past the statue and fountain of Bernardine and her cherubs, and just after the picturesque half-century-old wooden bungalows that now serve scrumptious meals to the Katipunan crowd. I kid you not.
The windmill was actually the original water tank for the Balara community. After the war, a bigger tank was constructed and the older one was dressed up as a windmill. It was the central feature of a small park overlooking the original filters. There is also an intriguing fountain (one of many in this water-rich facility) with an allegorical statue of a Filipina on a chariot driven by two carabaos.
At the base of the windmill is a kiosk, now falling apart. Nearby are the two lumps of old topiary. I found out later from Noel Ong, Manila Water’s art consultant and heritage researcher, that these were the figures of Don Quixote and Sancho Panza. Who else would they put next to a windmill?
Actually, there’s one more personage the old Nawasa folk featured here. On the park’s edge, right beside the remains of what used to be a tree-shaded and vine-covered trellis, is a bust of Don Francisco Carriedo, the wealthy Spaniard who donated the money for a water system to be built in Manila. (He died in the mid-18th century. Talk about project delays, it took another hundred years for the government to implement the waterworks.)
The park is run-down. Old outdoor furniture and even classical garden urns are scattered about. Carriedo’s face is half-gone, Don Quixote’s armor is nowhere to be found and the windmill has stopped turning. And there were more of these fragments, of happier summers past, that we saw as we ventured inside forgotten Balara.
Inside is what remains of a huge children’s paradise that could easily have accommodated several busloads of happy tykes. An aquarium sans fish is tucked into one of the slopes, its roof fashioned creatively out of water pipes cut in half. The playground was fenced in to keep the kids happy and safe. There were kiosks all around for parents or yayas to keep an eye on their wards. And on one end, the whole facility was guarded by a pint-sized castle, which happened to also be the kids’ toilets. Cute but solid!
The playground was one of three, one on each level of the ground that terraced down to the Filter building. These were marked by signs and directional arrows. Each of these signposts had tin cutouts that told a story or presented a pictogram of what was inside the area.
The skeletons of swings, carousels and jungle gyms sit silent now. But moving on down the slope, there was more.
Below the Filter 1 Bldg. is an open field marked by two sculptures. One is a globe but the larger one next to it is more intriguing. It is of a large urn borne by three men. Apparently these three were employees of Nawasa who died in the construction of the filters. Some of their descendants still work for the MWSS.
The Filter 1 Building itself is a significant structure in the Art Deco style. Several fountains surround it, the most significant being an Art Deco one that still functions and embellishes the rotunda in front of the building.
Joel Lacsamana has informed me that Manila Water has recognized that the MWSS Balara facility is home to one of the city’s best collections of Art Deco structures. It is a veritable botanic garden with the metro area’s last natural enclave of greenery. It is also one of the city’s last bastions of open space. Because of this, the Ayala Corporation-led consortia have organized a task force, headed by Rosenni Basilio, which is looking at reviving Balara.
It is embarking on a Balara development plan hand in hand with its internal community and other stakeholders like the local government under Mayor Sonny Belmonte and the national government represented by Congresswoman Defensor. It has also contacted the Heritage Conservation Society and the University of the Philippines community.
At 60 hectares or so in total area, the Balara Filters is as large as Rizal Park. One hopes that it could be revived to its old glory and more. With a metro population sweltering annually in the pollution-laden summer heat, there is a great need for public amenities such as the Balara of yore. Escape from our problems as a city and a nation may be futile. But relief could be just next door.