Vendors get last glimpse of iconic Manila mall

MANILA, Philippines — Stall owners who have been in Harrison Plaza for decades gave tribute to the country’s first one-stop mall, which closed shop yesterday after four decades. 

Many vendors told The STAR their main problem now was where to find affordable rent like in Harrison, where it cost P30,000 a month.

The mall’s closure displaced a group of 15 visually impaired masseurs employed in  “Bless Massage Centre” on the second floor.

“Harrison is the massage capital of the Philippines. That is its legacy. The owners have been kind to the visually impaired,” said the massage center’s supervisor Tess Muñoz, who was teary-eyed as she recalled their shop’s beginnings in 2008 to give employment to persons with disabilities.

When The STAR visited their shop Monday, they had just up a sign that read “Thank you for all the years of supporting the visually impaired masseurs!” They are now moving to a smaller space near the Light Rail Transit’s Carriedo station.

Freddie Luna Cruz, yesterday told The STAR he had been in the mall sketching portraits for P50 when it first opened in 1976. 

“I have been here since 1976. After 43 years, today is my last day,” Cruz told The STAR yesterday. He said he is a fourth-generation descendant of painter Juan Luna and has painted personal portraits for the country’s presidents from Corazon Aquino to President Duterte.

Cruz recalled that when the mall first opened in 1976, it had a Hispanic style architecture, until it was gutted by a fire in 1980 and reopened three years later.

He served as a personal painter and photographer of the Martel family, Harrison Plaza’s owners, who sold the seven-hectare complex to SM Prime which will build a residential-shopping center.

Cruz appealed for the extension of the tenants’ lease when the closure was first reported in July. But with the sale done, he said he has nothing else to do to help his fellow stall owners.

“Harrison has become part of my life. This is like my second wife, with whom I shared fond memories,” Cruz said in jest.

“The Martels are very good to me. I’m very thankful for giving me this opportunity. I’m just an ordinary artist, and yet they believed in me. I’m grateful I survived,” he added.

Vanjie de Guzman, who owned a towel embroidery stall for 22 years, recalled seeing family patriarch Don Martel going around the mall at a time the building was more polished with sparkling marble floors.

“But now, the mall fell into disrepair. That ceiling has remained like that ever since,” De Guzman told The STAR pointing at the square-within-a-square bas relief on the ceiling that has become symbolic of its architecture.

“This is our last glimpse of Harrison Plaza,” said Rodrigo Agustin, a musical instruments vendor for 15 years. “Many people visited the mall until the very end, even foreigners. This place will be missed.”