A promise is a promise; an icon in Palo is destroyed

LONDON — As could be expected, the group of business reporters who came to cover  PAL’s return to London after more than a 15-year absence collared Tourism Secretary Mon Jimenez to a corner to pummel him with questions. Ok PAL is back in business in London – the flight hub in Europe and we still have been regarded as the country with the worst airport in the world.

Filipinos who live in Madrid or Spain will have to pick up their plane to Manila in London.  It is like inviting distinguished guests to one’s house without getting it ready. But it seems that Jimenez has no answer to the question posed by reporters except to make promises. A proper airport is not in his department but with the Department of Transportation and Communications.

But he was bold enough to make promises that by the end of the year, “To put it more precisely; Terminal 3 and Terminal 1 WILL be finished next year — full stop. “  I felt sorry for him forced to make promises of getting the airport problem straightened out. He may have lost track of his date but he made the fearless forecast that by the end of the year, ie. November 2014 Terminal 1 will be finished with refurbishing.  Frankly I take such promises with a grain of salt.  He would have been better off by not putting dates to finishing the work. As it is, a promise is only that a promise. Why not just do it and surprise everyone when it is a reality.

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I decided instead to ask about Intramuros. I had been to Azerbaijan where the physical remains of its history are preserved and cared for.  They too have an inner city that is sheltered from modernizing.

I had been told that tourism officials from other countries in the region speak with envy that we have an Intramuros. If serious work were to be put to it our tourism would have a story. It may be fun in the Philippines but some people and I am one of them go to places that offer a story that belongs only to that place. Beaches are everywhere in the world and so are malls.  But Intramuros would be unique to us.

Secretary Jimenez agrees that we should develop Intramuros but said it could not be done because it was not owned by the government. “The only thing owned by the government were the walls,”he said. The rest, meaning all the land inside the historic city were titled to private persons. So who are these persons?  If the government had the will to do something about it, it will find the mechanism to get it from the individuals who own Intramuros.  But I decided not to press because it did seem impossible under  the present circumstances that such a project will be done. So we have to rely on beaches and supermalls as the main attraction of the Philippines. And what about the many monuments that ought to be resurrected so we could put together a history of the country? Rizal was executed in Luneta but he is not the only one who should be honored with a monument. A history book of relating Philippine monuments to events would be a welcome project to Philippine tourism.

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Back in Manila, the recent calamities in the Philippines have taken a toll of historical places to visit other than “beaches and malls.” As Gardi Labad, once director of the CCP  told me, he has worked tirelessly to help develop Bohol  with the help of the Ayalas.  

Until I met him I did not know that he was behind the Loboc Children’s Choir which I had heard people rave about. They had onced performed to open the 2010 Philippine Heritage Festival and sung the newly resurrected 19th century Misa Baclayana at a mass in the Manila Cathedral Hospital. Labad is dedicated to searching for cultural talent and history anywhere in the Philippines where it can be found.

Once he asked me if I could arrange a meeting with my late husband’s family to see how the ancestral house could be used as a center of art and communications for that part of the Visayas.

“The Pedrosa house in Palo is often referred to an icon among regional culture aficionados,” says Labad. During the meeting he suggested that we start by putting a historical marker on the house to narrate its history.

That would have been a modest beginning if it was even tried.  

“Once upon a time, it was even used as headquarters during the Philippine Revolution.

This is an old house in Palo Leyte owned by the old dons of Leyte, Don Pio Pedrosa, a founder of the Prudential Bank (now acquired by the Bank of the Philippine Islands),” he said. What he didn’t know was that the original owners of the house was the richer, more landed in-laws of Don Pio Pedrosa – the Acebedos. My father-in-law bought it from the Acebedos when he rose up in life and promised to preserve the historical house.

“But Leytenos especially those who come from Palo these days are more interested in relating the house to Don Pio Pedrosa because he is the grandfather of CNN anchorwoman Veronica Pedrosa whose family was exiled during the Marcos time,” he continues.

“While I was growing up, the first floor used to be the Public Library, with lots of donated books from the US. The building is designed after the Spanish old homes in the Philippines,” adds Labad.

But the supertyphoon Yolanda had other plans for  it. As of presstime, we heard that the Palo house was completely gone. Made mostly of wood that dates back several centuries, it has been demolished by the gusts and winds from Yolanda. The house is in front of the Palo Cathedral. From its windows generations have watched processions from the Cathedral.

There was no way it could have been saved reported television broadcasters. One said the cathedral, the houses around it including the Pedrosa ancestral house  must have the epicenter of the storm in Palo.Paloenos reported  it was like being inside a washing machine.