(IN)TANGIBLE HERITAGE(S)

Abstract

Last year, the world commemorated the 75th anniversary of the Allied firebombing of the German city of Dresden resulting to the area being leveled by aerial assault. Although the destruction of Dresden has been addressed with sufficient funding, bringing it back to its original grandeur, a lot of controversial issues are still being debated upon with much passion. Deafening though is the silence with regard another devastating outcome of World War II. As the United States set about regaining control of Manila from the Japanese, urban streets were bombarded by American artillery and in the process, a beautiful, elegant metropolis, dubbed as the “Pearl of the Orient” was laid to waste, and which unlike Dresden, has never quite recovered. Manila, in fact, came to be the second most devastated Allied city in World War II. At the very heart of the city of Manila is Ermita, the civic center. At the start of the 20th century, with the unforeseen war, here arose its government buildings: The City Hall of Manila and the offices of the three branches of government. Here too would arise the first State-run educational institution, the University of the Philippines and alongside it the Philippine General Hospital. A large park was laid out around the monument to the national hero, Dr. Jose Rizal, as its core. The dream was that Ermita itself would be the center of the emerging Nation-State. Destroyed by the bitter fighting of 1945, a number of buildings in the civic center have been restored, but no longer to its original dignity. Much of the memory of its original splendor has also been lost, and the present generation seems to have been brought up spared from the atrocities that the War has brought. This paper seeks to reclaim its memory and pride of place.