SaveYour Town Plaza!

There is an issue in DagupanCity
that may very well affect you.

The mayor and the Sanggunian,or City Council,
want to build an atrium on one-third of the hectare-or-so town plaza.

Another third will be reserved for the open-air auditorium,
which will be turned into a parking lot
in the daytime for atrium watchers.

The last third will be divided into a children's park in front
and a tiny repository for the two monuments
of Rizalon one corner and the KKK trio
of Bonifacio, Mabini and Del Pilar on another. Clickhere tosee the mayor's plan!

Examine the area that will be left to trees.
That's only 3,760 square meters, including the road
that will cut that third into two!

Look more closely into that area and determine how much cement
will be poured into it relative to the trees
that are projected to stand on it.
Too little room for trees, don't you think,
as compared with the concrete that will be going all around the whole hectarage?
You can count 63 trees in all in that small space.

But do you think 63 trees can stand amid all that concrete
when the plan finally pushes through?

Trees are life-givers to us all.
One tree can enable as many as 10 of us
to suck in more oxygen into our lungs.
We must not lose the little space we have left
for trees, especially in burgeoning cities like Dagupan.

Plazas, on the other hand,are very important to our history as a people.
Plazas are our towns' social centers,
practically the only remaining symbols of our historic past
aside from the churches beside them.
The other two are the municipal hall and the marketplace surrounding the town plaza,
but haven't the exigencies of modern times
already moved them to other parts of the municipality?
No such exigency
should mutilate our historic remembrance of plazas and churches -- muchless our environment.

Is an atrium really necessaryin the center of Dagupan City?
Just opposite the block on which it is designedto stand
already straddles a monument to kitsch, the old-rose-and-teal CSIsupermarket.
There are reports, moreover, that the vast Gotesco chain of Manila
is planning to build another mall on the same street,
just a few kilometers away.

But even without Gotesco,who needs another mall,
especially one built at government expense?

Moreover, the Dagupan TownPlaza is a repository of Pangasinenses'
resistance to foreign colonial rule.
It, and the church beside it, was where the Spaniards
made their last stand against the victorious forces
of the Katipunan. The American colonialists
hanged a respected Filipino public official
in that plaza. The Japanese Kempetai bayoneted
children and suspected Filipino guerrillas there.

In fact, the National Historical Institute itself is starting a campaign for the restoration of town plazas,and has duly informed truant municipal governments such as the one in Bayambang,also in Pangasinan, that it will not stand for their desecration.

We have talked with the mayor of Dagupan City, Al Fernandez,
and he seems to be a reasonable guy.
In fact, he has already adjusted his plan
from the original that included a wet market
to one that is an atrium-type mall.
So we suppose he is amenable to adjusting his plan a little more
-- to exclude the mall altogether,
and give his people 4,125 square meters
and 100 trees more of breathing space!

But you see, politicians may not always immediately see
the point of view of their people,
so it is always good to let them know.
Write down your thoughts now to the ISPthat serves Dagupan.
Ask them to forward your letter
to Mayor Alipio Fernandez at the Dagupan City Hall.
We're sure they will!

The mayor's office will be holding a public hearing
on the matter in January, 1997,
so be sure to be there, if not physically, at least in spirit!
And make sure the mayor hears your plea
before that time!

Better still, write the President,
asking him to do something to preserve your town plazas.

Write the Senate too, so that they may pass a bill making the desecration of plazas, churches and all historical places and artifacts unlawful and punishable under the law.

After all, we do deserve some respite
from the mall culture and ahistoricity
that is currently infecting our land.
Don't we?

Dagupan Update

The October 18 hearing at Dagupan City Hall was jampacked!

It was filled to overflowingwith oppositors,
who cried "No mall, no less!"
in their identical T-shirts.

They now call themselvesthe SPCPD,
short for Save the Plaza Coalition for Pro-People Development.
At the hearing and the plaza itself, they put up posters that said
"Save D Plaza"!

Photo by Eric Liongoren

Among the Dagupan organizationsthat have come forward so far
against the Plaza Construction Plan are
the Pangasinan Conservation Society, chaired by Atty. Pete R. Rebudal,
the Pangangaro Foundation, chaired by Bishop Oscar V. Cruz, D.D.
and presided over by Ms. Aurora Samson-Reyna,
and the St. John Catholic Charismatic Community.

The National HistoricalInstitute sent a letter
to the Dagupan Sangguniang Pambansa saying,
"The city plaza, as originally planned, should remain an open space
in the city, not only for aesthetic, but also for environmental reasons.
...The destruction of even a small portion of the plaza
will damage the cultural fabric of the town.
The benefits of the plaza should redound to the townspeople,
and not only to a few businessmen."

A professor at the University of the Philippines School of Urban and Regional Planning
suggested the following guidelines, among others:

"Government should, in fact, promote healthful living
and not detract from it.
It should be able to anticipate the consequences of its land use decisions
and be the voice of the people in resisting development
if this is not in consonance with the people's vision.
In each town and city in the Philippines today,
we see evidence of failure to provide for an orderly urban expansion.
Local governments have wittingly or unwittingly encouraged
sporadic and irrational development.
The people, therefore, should make their voices heard.

"Pangasinan has demonstrated that its people can be counted on
to move against well-entrenched and powerful political figures
as in the Bolinao case.
If it is what they want, Dagupenos can, by saying so,
decide what to do with the city plaza."

What more is there to say?