Metropolitan Theater to be updated at last

We were very pleased to read that at long last something will be done to restore the Metropolitan Theater to its old glory. People of my generation recall the Met as it was popularly referred to. It was as centrally located as could be and was accessible to all forms of public transportation. The same cannot be said of the Cultural Center in Roxas Boulevard that was designed strictly for car-owning clientele.

Before the war, moviehouses were theaters popularly called cine – Cine Ideal, Cine Capitol, Cine Lyric, etc. They are now things of the past because people can watch movies in their television sets at home. At first, the movies were called moving pictures because they had no sound. They were called silent movies. The dialogue was projected through print. Later, sound was introduced and they became known as talking pictures. Now because of TV, moviehouses are small viewing rooms in malls. Movie theaters are things of the past. The Metropolitan Theater is a survivor of that past era. It was both a live theater and a movie house. Our biggest memory of Metropolitan Theater is that it was where we saw the Tagalog adaptation of His Native Soil, a novel written by Juan C. Laya that won the Commonwealth Literary Award. He is the father of Jimmy Laya. His novel was adapted into a Tagalog play called Sa Sariling Lupa. We saw it in the Met before the war and Jimmy Laya, who was then only four years old was the youngest actor in the play. Lucio San Pedro, national artist for music, wrote the songs. San Pedro was from Angono, hometown of Botong Francisco, national artist in painting and the greatest muralist we have produced. This means that the small town of Angono has produced two national artists. How many cities or provinces can make that claim?

We are very glad about the restoration of the old Met because Manila was the second most destroyed city in World War II and Intramuros was one of the most devastated areas. We were glad that San Agustin Church survived in Intramuros and outside, the Metropolitan Theater. The Met must be restored and it must be Manila’s showplace for the Zarzuela and the contemporary theater.

The Metropolitan Theater by coincidence is near the Arroceros Forest park and Manila is fortunate to be the only city in Metro Manila that literally has a forest.

We must do everything to preserve the buildings and traditions that we have inherited from the past. Certain developments have taken place that is fast changing Manila. A classic example is the light railway train in Avenida Rizal. It has totally changed what was then called Bagong Bayan. But Mayor Lito Atienza has done a lot to enhance the city of Manila. Certain things, of course, cannot be changed. Whether we like it or not, Manila‘s streets were designed for the horse and buggy days. An ad appearing in TV says that the jeepney is a Filipino invention inspired by the American jeeps during liberation. This is totally false. Jeeps existed before the war only they were not called jeeps. They were called "jitneys" because that was the name of the original vehicles that were used. We must know our past.