CUHK Professor Laments Torre De Manila Ruling

Image Caption: Morley (left) giving his speech at the opening of the “The Story of the Making of the Philippines – in Flags and Maps” exhibit at the CUHK on Dec. 8, 2015 (file photo).

 

By Cheryl M. Arcibal

A missed opportunity.

This was how a history professor from the Chinese University of Hong Kong described the decision of the Philippine Supreme Court to allow property company DMCI to proceed with the construction of the 49-storey Torre de Manila, a building that mars the line of sight of the Rizal Monument.

Morley said the SC decision missed the “opportunity to instil the value of sight lines to national monuments” and “guaranteeing the dignity of vista as intended by the designer.”

“To this end the SC could have made the Torre de Manila case a planning paradigm not just for the country but southeast Asian region at large,” he said in an email interview.

Morley wrote a report for the Order of the Knights of Rizal, the group which sought to stop the construction of the tower, that was submitted to the SC to support the group’s petition.

Although the residential tower was built outside the heritage site of the Rizal Park, Morley called the structure “intrusive”.

“I feel more reading of the city plan should have been made by heritage agencies at the SC,” he said, citing the 1905 city plan by American Daniel Burnham.

Morley added that Burnham planned the location of the Rizal Monument to form an axis along with the supposed Capitol Building was to be, and a Washington DC type mall at its front.

In the American colonial era, Morley noted, as boats entered into Manila Bay, they would directly approach what was to be the “water gate” in front of Rizal Park and by looking east to the land, the boats would see the Rizal Monument, the large green space surrounding it, and to its rear the dome of the Rizal Monument.

“Such a vista was to present the constructive partnership between the Americans and Filipinos after 1898. It was to present a grand, beautiful view of Modern Manila and not, as was the case pre 1898, a view of a city dominated by the churches of Intramuros,” he said.

Burnham’s plan, which envisioned a secular civic society – an amalgam of civic presented by Jose Rizal in the 1890s and that in American cities at that time – was to be shown rather than the Catholic and Spanish colonial design.

“Moreover, the Americans were encouraging Filipino nationalism: one to unite people (albeit at the same time drawing them together to denigrate the Spanish era). Hence for the Americans the view of the Rizal Monument was to always be west to east, now a view within which the Torre de Manila will always be seen,” he added.

The sight line, from west to east, was also symbolic of the Filipino nation taking charge of the Philippines from the colonial powers.

However, with the Torre de Manila looming behind the Rizal monument, the building became “indelible” and has tattooed itself into the vista to the Rizal Monument,” he said.

 

(Source: HongKongNews.com.hk)

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