Resurrecting the pre-War charm of Cebu City

Mayor Michael Rama made one giant step forward by announcing in his inaugural speech the resurrection of the moth-balled Cebu Waterfront Heritage Development Project through the appointment of former mayor Alvin Garcia as consultant. Had Garcia been given a second term in the 1990s, Cebu would most probably be basking in the charm of a beautiful waterfront stretching from Fort San Pedro down to the Carbon Market and Freedom Park. Even the Dutch government was willing then to pitch in to see the project through. But the ugly face of politics intervened, Garcia lost and the project was left in total darkness.

Meanwhile, Cebu’s waterfront area started to develop. A huge and humongous red building now blocks the waterfront view of Fort San Pedro, a painful reminder of the absence of a heritage conservation program for the city. Fortunately, the private sector took the cudgels for heritage promotion and protection at the old Spanish quarter of the city. And in succession, we saw Ricardo Cardinal Vidal pursuing the conversion of the former Cathedral Rectory into the archdiocesan museum, Jimmy Sy converting his papa’s old warehouse (the ancient Jesuit House of 1730) into the Museo sa Parian sa Sugbo and Val Sandiego sprucing up his family’s balay nga bato also in Parian. Even the University of Southern Philippines pitched in and converted a room at the old Mabini Campus to house the memorabilia of Jose Rizal. Of course, Casa Gorordo was way ahead of all these efforts way back in the 1980s when governance and development was still a stranger to heritage.

Lest we forget, the Cebu Waterfront Development Project originally started as a study carried out by a small group of architects and urban planners called the Cebu Heritage Conservation Council, founded by architect Joy Martinez-Onozawa. This study, complete with public consultations of all stakeholders, including vendors and the urban poor, proposed a 20-year development plan for the old Spanish quarter of Cebu. This covered the waterfront as well as its immediate built environment roughly stretching to the borders of the Cathedral and the Basilica del Sto. Niño to the west, Parian to the northwest, the 1920s warehouses along MacArthur Boulevard to the northeast and the Chinese-owned 1920s warehouses as well as Carbon Market and the former Warwick Barracks to the south.

The result of this study was three volumes of research, architectural designs and plans which also became the subject of two master’s theses, one at the University of Hong Kong by Therese Tumulak Crisostomo, which can still be accessed on the Internet. There are also various studies of this area in downtown Cebu that have been carried out from time to time by the College of Architecture and Fine Arts (CAFA) of the University of San Carlos, which even carried out an exhibit last year at the Ayala Center. In fact, there are courses being taught now that focus on the downtown area of Cebu.

All told, the aim of these studies is to revitalize those areas of Cebu that are deemed dirty by day and dangerous by night. I am glad, for one, that Mayor Mike has also made the firm decision to clean up the old Warwick Barracks and perhaps restore the old Plaza Washington, now called Freedom Park fronting the University of San Jose-Recoletos.

We have always boasted to guests that Cebu City is like Singapore. But where are the wide open spaces, the parks, the tree-lined avenues that make every visitor of Singapore gasp in awe?

During their previous terms, Mayor Mike Rama and Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia started sprucing up the stretch to Capitol. Then the mayor also started cleaning up the islands along New Imus Road even as he built a park for senior citizens behind city hall. His greatest achievement, according to one fan I met the other day, was the way he cleaned up the Cebu City Medical Center and made it simply liveable instead of being a dreadful end-point for the destitute and the dying. I would not be surprised if the doctors there quietly campaigned for Mike. I too would have done so.

Perhaps you will agree with me if I have high hopes for the next three years. Expect a more livable Cebu from here on.

Finally, there is light at the end of the tunnel.