City College of Manila construction at Mehan Gardens in the works

Manila Mayor Lito Atienza said the city government is now closely coordinating with the National Historical Institute (NHI) on the immediate construction of the City College of Manila (CCM) at the historical Mehan Gardens.

Atienza said he is trying to finalize the design of the CCM building, which will soon rise at the Mehan Garden along Arroceros street, near the Central station of the Light Rail Transit (LRT).

The mayor said the project would surely help the city government provide quality education to poor but deserving children in the country’s capital.

"We accepted the fact that we can do it," Atienza said referring to the soon-to-rise building at the historical garden. He said he has been speaking with NHI head Ambeth Ocampo about the project.

The city government has been pushing the project for a long time but some historians have been strongly opposing the plans, saying the area should not be touched, it being a historical site.

Historians said that Mehan Gardens should be preserved since it has been declared by the NHI to be a historical site of national significance.

According to some historians, Mehan Gardens was the site of the Jardin Botanico and former Parian, where the Spanish colonials confined the Chinese. The maps of the botanical garden show that its boundaries stretched from the Pasig River to the present Burgos Drive.

The National Museum (NM), on the other hand, declared the entire Mehan Gardens-Arroceros Forest Park-Plaza Lawton area to have a national archeological importance after pre-Hispanic Manila wares and Chinese porcelain were found during test diggings recently. With the declaration, anyone who wishes to touch it should first seek archeological clearance from NM officials.

But Atienza said the construction of the CCM building should not be stopped because it would be a big boost not only to the development of Manila as a city but to its people as well. "More students could be accommodated in CCM, which provides free education."

If historians would stop the development because of historical significance, Atienza explained, progress and growth in the city would be hampered since Manila as a whole is historical. – Cecille Suerte Felipe