The ancestral house of Dr. Jose Rizal in Calamba, Laguna has recently been, hold on to your seats, painted a 'light shade of green' by no less than the National Historical Institute (NHI). That's not all, they painted the interiors a kind of yellow and the ceilings blue. Even if these are in Martha Stewart's tasteful palette -- the reason this was done is outright stupid. Government has once again shown its disrespect for history and its disregard not only of tax payers money but more importantly the opinion of these tax payers. Don't they even hold consultations with the residents of Laguna? (read full article by clicking on the link above)
This is but another example of Government's lust for tacky infrastructure. Take the Cement Pine Tree at the top of Session Road which was 'planted' with more than a million pesos. To add insult, there's the engraved sign, also on cement, that reads "Plant Me and Protect Me". Now a cement pine tree with white, 60s plastic orbs for lights -- a giant energy-consuming tree that doesn't eat up carbon monoxide spewed by vehicles on Session Road?! I really don't get it. Also those street sign posts and flyover railings made of cement but rendered to simulate pine logs. Didn't know pine trees had as many nodes as bamboo. Wow! Green as a dodo's phlegm!
Or how about the lamp posts along historic Manila Bay. Ugly by day, uglier by night! You'd feel like you just walked into the 'Wheel Of Fortune' set! Don't be surprised if someone dressed like Vanna White prods you to buy a vowel! Only Kuya Germs and The Bellestar dancers would find those lamps pretty.
Now the Philippines doesn't lack for artists, urban planners, architects, etc. Heck, the Cultural Center of the Philippines is just a stone's throw away from Manila Baywalk. National Artist Bencab is a resident of Baguio. What was NHI's Ambeth Ocampo thinking of? Green, yellow and blue? Go, Look and Sob. Worse even, they put up a tarpaulin explaining the choices of color for the Rizal House. Tarpaulin again?! If you'd line up all the tarpaulins in the Philippines, it would be enough to cover, uhm, the entire Philippines! Think of all that plastic.
Speaking of tarps, government is looking at taking down the 'sexy' billboards along Edsa, because they're a source of traffic accidents. Those billboards were tastefully conceptualized, executed, and photographed by competent and creative people in the advertising industry. Not to mention they cover some eyesores. I'd rather ogle Marc Nelson's abs than walk along Baywalk. Manila drivers are crazy, with or without sexy billboards. (Unless them bus drivers are now gay?! Oh, but that's another blog post.)
Going back, I'm not even going to think of how they could have spent those funds on worthwhile endeavours.
Next time, go ahead and get your kickbacks from these projects, we all know you do, but please, leave us with something more aesthetic. Don't any of you pick up anything in your yearly junkets abroad? Unless y'all just visit Disneyland.
Reminds me when they renovated the Vigan Cathedral years ago. They repainted the altars, the ceiling and the oil paintings along the nave. It was so sloppy my eyes bled. It would have been much better if they just removed the grime from the original paint.
ReplyDeleteIn contrast, there's this Peranakan house I saw in Penang, Malaysia. The restoration was so faithful they actually used the original sources of materials - e.g. they imported tiles from China and restoration was done by artisans.
Even the making of Titanic was a lot better than all these 'restoration' jobs. Maybe we should get Cameron's set designer to do our historical buildings?
ReplyDelete