Pasig River: Manila's Main Commercial Artery...long time ago
Posted on Sunday, 10 August 2014
Pasig
River: Manila’s main commercial artery
…
long time ago
By Apolinario Villalobos
“The Pasig, ah, the Pasig… the great old
river”. The statement rings with deeply felt reverence, uttered by an old woman
whose old age is made obvious by a pattern of wrinkles on her face. She now
sells candles and bronze amulets just outside the Quiapo church. She’s from
Taguig, but she could vividly recall days when she and her family would sail
down the river on a dugout to Manila to sell vegetables and clay pots. According
to her, on weekends, dugouts would compete with water lilies in clogging the
river. While her father would curse at moving clusters of this hardy aquatic
plant, they, the children would reach out to the brightly colored plumes. But
now, those were just part of a once unharried life. The Pasig which has
nurtured a city into becoming one that the world respects, is now gasping for
breath.
The Pasig once began songs and poems,
graced canvases and became an unseen participant in stage plays. Notable poets,
like Jose Rizal, had always a special mention of the river to spice up a coterie
of characters such as Ibarra, Maria Clara, and Doῆa Geronima, the
“mutya” or queen of the river. In more ways than one, it has provided an exit
for heroic characters in fiction stories just like Venice.
How it happen to be named after Pasig
instead of Manila, is something the old folks could not remember. What they
could recall is that, there was once a small delta, skimmed by what is now
Ayala bridge which was believed to be the first site of Manila. It was called
Isla de Convalescia, as it was here where a Spanish governor general would
relax his nerves after a conflict with the clergy.
Records show that fleets of Chinese junks
would cram the mouth of the river during the heyday of its glorious trading
past, before the arrival of the Spaniards. On its banks, Chinese merchants
would unload their wares that consisted of silk and brocade, jewelries,
perfumes, wines, caged birds and exotic fruits. The Tagalogs (taga-ilog), the
early Filipinos who settled along the river banks, also traded with merchants
from Java, India, Sumatra and Siam (Thailand). It was for this reason that
“alcaicerias” mushroomed near the riverbank to lodge these traders.
The river divides the city of Manila into
northern and southern portions. Minor divisions are made by its tributaries and
outflows, some of which are unfortunately filled today by unscrupulous urban
developers to give way to commercial buildings, hence, their mysterious
disappearance from the map. Linking then the divided city were eight bridges
that span the river, with the four major ones, being the Del Pan (used to be
the Puente de Espaῆa) that leads to the north harbor and northern of end of Divisoria, Jones
that leads to the Chinatown and and the heart of Divisoria, MacArthur that
leads to Sta. Cruz district with its famous Avenida, Quezon (formerly Puente
Colgante) that leads to Quiapo district with its famous Quiapo Church and
Islamic Center, and Ayala that leads to the University belt, Malacaῆan
Palace and Sta. Mesa.
During the administration of Ferdinand
Marcos, the river was regularly “patrolled” by River Aides to ensure the maintenance
of its cleanliness. After Marcos, the project for its rehabilitation has been
re-named every time a new President occupied Malacaῆan Palace, until
lately, it died naturally. What remains today is the ferry service of the Metro
Manila Development Authority (MMA) as its share in easing the traffic of
Manila.
The river is calm most of the time, and
whatever temperament it shows shortly after a heavy downpour soon disappears.
During high tide, the current’s unimpeded flow pours out into Laguna de Bay through
Jala-jala, the terminus in the river’s system, though, there are yet other towns
and districts that benefit from the river’s flow.
Starting from Punta pier, there’s the Sta.
Ana district, with its bridge called “Lambingan” (bridge of tryst). Going down
south, the river flows by the once grand estate called Carmelence, where the
moneyed of yesteryears once lived. Among the elegant residences, the most
prominent is the Presidential Residence, seat of the national government, the
Malacaῆan Palace. The residence was once a fenced Spanish home with a small
zoo and aviary.
Right across the river to the left of the
Palace is another landmark, the humble abode of Apolinario Mabini, also known in
history as the sublime paralytic. Then there’s the old, Manila Boat Club which
was founded in the nineteenth century.
Several hundred meters down is a cornucopia
of abandoned industrial plants whose pipes used to constantly spew black and
white smoke. Here, are warehouses whose stainless structures gleam under the glare
of the sun. A little further still, the
main vein of the river branches into northern and southern flows. While the
northern flow slices the old Sta. Mesa, the southern flow provides a natural
boundary between Mandaluyong and Makati.
Passing Sta. Ana on the right, a thumb-like
extension of land causes the river to slightly swerve. It is the Sta. Ana
Archaeological site where artifacts that attest to the bank’s rich cultural
past were unearthed. Cuddling a pocket of scalene area, just a few minutes from
the archaeological site is Manila’s only race track.
On the left are more industrial warehouses,
among which are squeezed residences which persisted on staying despite the
polluted air. This row of industrial and residential structures continues even
beyond the Guadalupe Bridge which serves as a link of Manila’s longest
thoroughfare, the Epifanio de los Santos Avenue or EDSA that starts from Roxas
Boulevard in Pasay City, and culminates at the Bonifacio Monument in Caloocan
City.
A little further from Guadalupe is Pateros,
once the seat of “balut” industry, but has lately gave way to the onslaught of
housing developments that overran the once thriving duck pens along the river
bank. “Balut” is the unhatched duck egg, treated with salt and slightly aged,
then boiled. The unhatched chick is purported to be nutritious.
On the northeast, stretching towards the
mountains is a delta on which peacefully settles Napindan, the last district
along the Pasig River as it flows into Laguna de Bay. Napindan’s atmosphere is
still rural, despite the presence of subdivisions. Marking Napindan is a
lighthouse which from a distance could be mistaken for a mound. From its tower,
one can view Talim Island, the biggest island in the lake.
The sloping mound of the grassy range
points towards Jala-Jala, the town made famous by its fish corrals. From air,
the offshore waters look like a huge green canvas painted with brown geometric
figures. This area is devoted to milkfish farming.
On the northern bank of the river, from the
Del Pan Bridge towards its mouth that opens towards Manila de Bay, can still be
found the old buildings, once mute witnesses to the glorious Hispanic past of Manila.
The area encompasses the districts of Quiapo, Sta. Cruz and Binondo where
Escolta St, the once bustling commercial avenue of Manila is located. There is
now, a proposal to rehabilitate Escolta, to make it a veritable touristic nook
of the city, in addition to Intramuros and Luneta.
Not only Manilans, but the rest of
Filipinos, are still hoping that something can be done for the rehabilitation
of Pasig River despite the politics that beset both the local and national
governments, if only, for the sake of its historic significance. As mentioned
earlier, Pasig River has graced stanzas of poems and refrains of songs, aside
from lines of stage actors in plays. No amount of pollution and thick clogs of
water hyacinth and water lilies will eradicate the river from the face of
Manila. For as long as the sea pushes its high tide through it towards Laguna
de Bay, Pasig River shall persist to be Manila’s main artery.
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