Our American heritage

(Part 3 of a series on Ako ay Pilipino)

My earliest recollection of Manila was as a small child taking a walk with my late father, Atty. Calixto Silverio, around our neighborhood in Ayala Boulevard. The Legislative buildings, the City Hall, and Post Office with their Doric columns impressed me as palaces. Sometimes, Papa would take me to buy fish from the red brick Ice House and Cold Storage at the foot of Quezon Bridge.

Across Plaza Goiti was the art deco Metropolitan Theater where I would be treated to Tagalog stage shows. Every time we would leave the theater, I would be dazzled by the crisscrossing roads and the numerous avenues which burst out like a fan to the four bridges: Jones, Sta. Cruz (named McArthur after the war), Quezon, and several blocks away, the silver-arched bridge of Ayala.

Old Manila

I know that across the big Pasig River was “downtown” where the stores were. Escolta, Avenida Rizal, Carriedo and Quiapo were part of my childhood vocabulary. That educated me about the order demanded by the Zoning Law. Shopping was across the bridges. Residences were quiet and peaceful. Schools were near the residences.

Actually, this was the city plan of American Architect Burnham for Manila. This “imported” genius completed the plan to include the Philippine General Hospital complex with the Nursing School of Taft Avenue, the main road that cuts through the old Manila from the Post Office to San Andres circles down to Vito Cruz Street. Note that the art deco façade of the Rizal Memorial Coliseum complex is similar to that of the Metropolitan Theater.

Behind the Nursing School along Padre Faura Street is found another set of handsome buildings, the Justice Department, the University of the Philippines, etc. crowning the Ermita district. Along the opposite side were the Dewey Boulevard promenade and the Luneta Park. How I loved to walk along the clean and green pathway where the bulky shade trees would drop huge pink hairy blossoms at my very feet. I wish I could recall the names of those exotic ornamental trees.

After independence, 1946

Right after independence was granted to Filipinos in 1946, the Republic of the Philippines or Post-War Government was organized. An elected national president and provincial governors and city mayors took over the responsibilities of governing our land and serving the people.

The originally high standards of city planning patterned after American cities began to slowly disintegrate. The prominent city planners and engineers were US pensionados, trained in America, together with NBI and police chiefs. Soon, politics reared its ugly head. Political recommendees who were not competent enough nor disciplined for work began to fill up the city halls.

Population grew rapidly with many people drawn to live in the cities. The Manila of the ’50s stretched to the Makati of the ’60s followed by Quezon City residences spilling over to Marikina. By the ’70s, when Imelda Marcos took over the administration of the so-called “Metro Manila”, the metropolis extended to the provinces of Bulacan, Rizal and Laguna.

No uniform city plan was made for the expansion of Manila. The mayors of San Juan, Mandaluyong, Pasig, Caloocan, Makati and Quezon City had different city layouts instead of adhering to a common city plan. For example, post-war Germany developed “50-Year City Plans” which provided for modest but elegant city halls, historical landmarks, parks, commercial residential zones, proper garbage disposal, transportation terminals and police outposts and cemeteries.

History of our education from Spanish to American colonization

The Educational Decree of 1863 provided several inducements to learn Spanish. Five years after the organization of the schools, no Filipino who did not speak and write Spanish could hold a salaried government office. Fifteen years later, no Filipino who did not possess knowledge of Spanish was eligible for the position of petty governor for membership in the principalia. Thirty years after 1863, only those who knew Spanish could be exempted from personal service tax. There were other decrees and circulars issued to encourage Spanish as the common language of the Filipinos.

In his book, The Philippine Educational System (1949), Antonio Isidro, Ph.D. and member of the Joint Congressional Committee on Education described Spanish times, “In every town at least two primary schools were authorized to be established – one for boys and another for girls. Towns which had a population of more than 5,000 were to have two schools for boys and two schools for girls. The law authorized the organization of one school for each sex for every 5,000 inhabitants.”

American establishes the public school system

Elementary instruction during the American regime began with the approval of Act 74 in 1901 by the Philippine Commission, wherein all schools organized by the Military Government were declared under the Department of Public Instruction.

To instill the tenets of democracy and liberty within the Filipino soul was the aim of America so that Filipinos would get back their independence by 1947. After all, America herself went through lengthy revolutionary wars to gain her own independence from Britain. The Civil War to help emancipate the blacks from slavery was waged between the North and the South, when “brother fought against brother”.

The public school system was the answer. It would give every Filipino child all over the country the opportunity to go to school. Then US President William McKinley sent 800 American teachers to teach Filipinos all over the islands. This could only be possible if the medium of teaching were English. American textbooks were also made available in all subjects.

Japanese time

After Japan bombed Pearl Harbor, Japan invaded the Southeast Asian countries and declared the cluster, “the Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere”. Being an American colony, Japan immediately captured Manila. The Japanese Imperial Forces proclaimed Nippongo as the future national language of the Philippines and urged every Filipino to learn it. Japan’s scheme to spread Nippongo was better organized than the efforts made by Spain and America to teach their respective languages.

The curriculum of the public schools was overhauled with Nippongo supplanting English. Every child from the first grade up was required to learn the Hansai Kotoba, a Nippongo primer. Language institutes were created. Newspapers, periodicals, and the radio were used as media for teaching Nippongo. Every kind of incentive was conceived to make Filipinos learn the language which Japan hoped to develop as the common tongue of one billion Asians.

Baguio and its American connections

The Americans established the “summer capital” of Baguio with Architect Burnham. With American and Filipino engineers and Cordillera native workers, they carved out of the rocky mountain, the zigzag shaped Kennon road, named after its chief American Engineer. The land plan included the famous Camp John Hay and the Philippine Military Academy (PMA).

Pine trees that dominated the landscape were actually intended to prevent landslides and erosion. In Burnham Park, a lagoon and cemented walks were bordered with a wide assortment of flowers such as Snap Dragons, Hollyhocks, Asters, Columbines, purple Bellflowers and Clematis. In fact, the Sweet Williams, Everlasting, Delphiniums, Foxgloves, white Easter Lilies and Calla Lillies made Baguio one of the most romantic places in the country, and a special favorite for lovers and honeymooners.

The Governor General’s Mansion and the summer houses of other government executives close to Mines View Park are used today as the Philippine President’s summer residence and the spacious sprawling houses of the Vice President and the Speaker of the House. During the Commonwealth era, the government officials transferred their work here during the hot season of March to May.

Because education was viewed with great importance by the government, a Teachers’ Camp was designed on a very large tract of land along Leonard Wood Road. Also along it and Wright Park is the Baguio Country Club and Golf Course, one of the best in Asia. It was organized by the first American residents who married Filipinos.

Poor governance, over population tarnished the cultural heritage of Baguio

Baguio has gradually deteriorated since 1950 for lack of maintenance from the national and the local government. First, the piney perfume of the conifer trees disappeared along Kennon Road. (As a child, I used to think our fresh Christmas trees were the reason why the pine trees disappeared.) Then, Burnham Park’s flower beds thinned out and were filled with litter. Even before the devastating earthquake, it is said that former Mayor Jun Labo granted 200,000 lowlanders the illegal privilege of squatting on any exposed land, in exchange for their votes.

(Reference: Half A Millennium of Philippine History by Preciosa S. Soliven, Ed.D., 1999; The Philippine Educational System by Antonio Isidro, Ph.D, 1949.)