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The Las Pinas-Paranaque Critical Habitat

Satellite Image coordinates: 14.492583, 120.981924 . At image center is the Las Pinas-Paranaque Critical Habitat, a (mostly) natural wetland and barrier island jutting out into Manila Bay.  To its east is the Manila – Cavite Coastal Expressway and the cities of Las Piñas and Parañaque. To its north are the Asia World City and Aseana City land reclamation developments. For more on the reclamation projects see my previous post, Manila Bay A contentious Urban Waterfront. Source: Google Earth

 

An Ecological Diamond-in-the-Rough:

Both unique and largely unknown, the 175 hectare (432 acre) Las Pinas – Paranaque Critical Habitat Area is without precedent in the city of Manila.  Not only is it the only natural preservation area within the metro area, but it is also contains the last bastion of mangrove forests on the eastern shore of Manila Bay, others having been destroyed through tree harvesting and land reclamation.  It is believed that the bay once was bordered by as much as 54,000 hectares of mangroves, now reduced to 794.  Declared as a Critical Habitat Area by presidential proclamation in 2007 (at the time the country’s first declared critical habitat), the wetland was also recognized that same year on the Ramsar List of Wetlands of International Importance.  Located along the the East Asian – Australasian Flyway, bird watchers have documented up to 84 different species of birds (47 which are migratory) and up to 5000 individual birds have been found to occupy the area at times, giving the islands further ecological value.  The Critical Habitat Area consists of two islands, Freedom Island to the north and Long Island to the south. The islands have been connected to each other and to the mainland to allow vehicular access.

Viewed from an incoming flight into Ninoy Aquino (Manila) International Airport (image right), one can easily identify Freedom Island and Long Island comprising the currently protected Las Pinas-Paranaque Critical Habitat Area (1), the projected area of the proposed land reclamation adjacent to the habitat area (2), and completed reclamations into Manila Bay (3). Background photo source

Boundary and land cover map of the Las Pinas-Paranaque Critical Habitat Area.  The areas in the darkest shade of green are representative of the 30 hectares (74 acres) of mangroves found in the habitat area. Source

 

Plans for Reclamation:

Reclaiming land from the Bay has been a common political and economic tactic in Manila since the 1970’s.  The waters around the critical habitat area have actually been planned for reclamation for decades having been zoned off by the controversial Bay City Plan in 1977.  From this plan proposed reclamations have fallen into place like dominoes heading south from the the city’s core and this area is slotted as the next to develop.  Though multiple developers have proposed different schemes, the most recent scheme (pictured below) preserves the habitat area in plan, but undoubtedly alters its fundamental ecology by filling in around it and altering the hydrology of the estuary and the lagoons that make up the island and its mangroves.  However environmentalists and residents from the neighboring cities of Las Pinas and Paranaque and across Manila have stunted the projects implementation and a series of legal and political battles have yet to resolve the habitats ultimate fate.

Master Development plan by Philippine Reclamation Authority (PRA) of the proposed 14 billion peso, 635 hectare mixed-use reclamation project.  Following an initial public outcry against the infill of the wetlands in the original plan, this plan was modified to preserve the protected area’s existing footprint (though altering its shoreline, and ecological context.) Source

 

The View from the Ground:

Currently the Critical Habitat Area is only open to visitors that have acquired a DENR permit or are card-carrying bird watchers.  Though there have been numerous volunteer clean-up efforts as well as tree planting programs the area has undergone only minor site improvements to accommodate visitors (perhaps due to the uncertainties of the preserves future).  However, the investment in tree saplings and the labor of the volunteers who planted them are obvious throughout the site.  The island’s western shore along Manila Bay consists of a shell and debris covered beachhead, the interior of the island a mix of endemic trees, and the eastern shore, which borders the Paranaque and Las Pinas River estuaries, is where the mangroves can be found.  As of 2014, a series of trails head out from a central registry area on Freedom Island. Throughout the trek there are several designated bird watching areas as well as signs labeling the species of many of the trees and describing their historical uses in Filipino culture… hints of the islands educational potential.

In many ways, the Las Pinas-Paranaque Critical Habitat Area reminds me of New York City’s Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge, also a favorite locale for bird watchers and once threatened by the reclamation and dredging projects affiliated with John F. Kennedy Airport.  Though still under-threat from rising seas and erosion, the refuge could be a model  for conservation, recreation, and education that Manila could follow.

The fork between Long Island and Freedom island.  The beach-head of the latter can be seen to the right.

View of the beach on freedom island with trash deposited from the bay during high-tide.  The construction of high-rises on the reclaimed land of Asia World city can be seen in the distance.

Since its inception as a habitat area, community groups have sponsored native tree plantings in areas that had been denuded, such as along the main road leading into the heart of Freedom Island. Another threat to the bird sanctuary is Manila’s main airport located nearby in Paranaque.  Though politically contentious, airport officials have supported the destruction of the habitat area in the past citing the threat to planes that the birds pose (though few incidents have been recorded or verified).

Endangered Chinese Egrets, easily stirred by human activity, use the tree canopies for nesting.

Mudflats and ponds are scattered throughout the interior of the island.  The Philippine Duck (Anas luzonica) can be seen at image top.  The duck, a native of the Philippines, uses the island as breeding grounds and is listed as a vulnerable species.

Lacking significant underbrush the mangrove is dominated by tree stubs, trunks, and the lush green crowns of the trees.

Trash and refuse that is combed out of the estuary by the mangrove stubs following high tide events.

View of and over the mangroves of Freedom Island.  In a city that has been consuming its natural hinterlands, it is a rare juxtaposition so close to the urban core.

 

Whose Bay is it?:

Ultimately, what makes the Las Pinas-Paranaque Critical Habitat area so valuable is that it is an endangered landscape and is thus both ecologically unique and symbolically powerful in the context of a mega city such as Manila.  With few parks, these islands comprise one of the few spaces removed and untouched by the congestion of the city, while also acting as time capsule, a remnant of landscapes past, before the impacts of colonization and globalization swept across the archipelago.  Likely the legacy of this landscape is what attracts birds for a stopover as they fly north and south as they have for millennia.  However as the city has grown up around it, the island’s status as an enclave is also what is attracting developers… dreaming of creating another reclaimed edge city removed from the realities and struggles of the unchecked metropolis.

The debate around the Critical Habitat Area ultimately raises the age-old question of who is the city for.  Barring an economic recession, the reclamation project will undoubtedly be profitable to the developers, politicians, and elite class of businessmen it is meant to attract and serve.  However, if developed it is likely the ecosystem will be fundamentally altered, the birds will fly elsewhere, local fishermen and neighboring residents will loose thier access to the waterfront forever.  In this contested space, do city officials not have an obligation to protect its natural and human assets… to recognize what was as much as profit on what can be?

Manila Bay: A Contentious Urban Waterfront

Infographic highlighting past and future land reclamation projects into Manila Bay. 

Pasig River Walk 1

Guadalupe Bridge to C5 Bridge: 

This is the first of a series of walks I will be taking along Manila’s central artery, the Pasig River. Though the public ferry system was recently put on hold (for financial restructuring), the river and its banks are still a major avenue for freight barges, pedestrians, high-rise development, illegal slums, and perhaps most disparagingly, waste and pollution. However the river is best known as a conduit for rainy season run-off for the massive 651 sq km (251 sq mi) Pasig-Laguna de Bay Watershed (more on this in future posts).  Only 27 km. (17 mi.) long, the Pasig is a short but at times voluminous river that runs between Laguna de Bay, a large freshwater lake southeast of Manila, and Manila Bay. The presence of the river and its source of fresh water is what led to the city’s pre-Spanish founding, however, the river’s worsening flooding have led to many plans past and present to further engineer the watershed through a system of locks, dikes, channels and spillways.

On top of these macro dilemmas the Pasig is further complicated in by the slums that surround its banks.  Filled by poor migrant families from the countryside, the otherwise undeveloped easements of the river offer effective (but risky) sites for habitation.  Informal settlements, lacking a hook-up to utilities, find in adjacency to the river a source of water (though considered undrinkable since the 1930’s), a source of food (though considered biologically dead since 1990) and relatedly, a automatic trash and sewage removal service (some 70% of pollution in the river is said to be domestic in orgin).  This chronic cycle of trash, clogging, flooding, poverty, and neglect is now being challenged by contentious efforts at slum removal, river clean-up, and new parks and open spaces along the banks of the river.

The 2.5 km (1.5 mi) walk began at the Guadalupe MRT (light rail) train station just to the south (image left) of the river.  Sticking to the more open southern bank of the river, I traversed up river along the edge of Makati City, past Fort Bonificio High School, to the C5 Bridge.  Just up river from the C5 bridge crossing (image bottom) is the Napindan Floodgate, which is located where the Marikina River (the Pasig’s most formidable tributary), joins the river.  The floodgate is part of a massive engineering of the river which can trap water in Laguna de Bay.

Click any images below to enlarge:

Satellite composite of a section of Manila’s Pasig River, running from the Guadalupe Bridge (top) to the C5 Bridge (bottom).  While the river flows east to west (image bottom to top) the walk is west to east (top to bottom).  Numbers on the map correspond to locations of photos shown below.

 

1. View towards Guadalupe Bridge

View north from the eastern stair exiting Guadalupe MRT Station.  The north-bound lanes of the EDSA are adjacent to the MRT.  The pristine park to the right (private? locked gate), is the Guadalupe Nuevo Cloverleaf Park.  The Pasig’s width, about 280 ft (80 m), offers a rare opening in the dense city, and is commonly exploited for advertising (see billboards on north bank of the river).

 

2. River revitalization (north bank)

Just west (downriver) of Guadalupe bridge, initial efforts by the Pasig River Rehabilitation Commission to “green” the embankments of the river.

 

3. Slum-lined esteros

View south up an esteros (tributary/drainage canal).  Lined in slums and a site of waste dumping, trash in the river water is visible and the stench of human waste was palpable.  The creek empties directly into the Pasig on the other side of the bridge from where the photo is taken.

 

4. River revitalization (south bank)

Restoration efforts are also active east of the Guadalupe bridge (up river).  Here sandbags and bamboo posts anchor soil and coconut fibers, creating a growing medium for plants.

 

5. River-walk residents

Much of the embankments are topped with sidewalks that feature stairs down to the river – a gesture of the river’s past (and continuing) use by the public.  Many homeless people and families sleep along the river under the shade of trees, salvaging items floating in the river, and selling trinkets to passerbys.

 

6. North bank towards Barangka Ilaya 1

Across the river, (north bank in Barangka Ilaya) brightly colored homes and shanties (all well within the flood zone) are contrasted up against a fortified bluff where bland residential high-rises are being developed overlooking the river.

 

7. North bank towards Barangka Ilaya 2

A shed protects a demolition and excavation site on the north bank in Barangka Ilaya.

 

8. Grainery and Barges 1

Upriver from Barangka Ilaya, residential transitions to industrial areas… mostly for grain and animal feed distribution.

 

9. Grainery and Barges 2

A view back down river towards the high-rises of Barangka Ilaya

 

10. Riverwalk Washout

Approaching Makati Park and Fort Bonificio High School, the river walk has ceases to be maintained, likely being washed out from flooding over subsequent rainy seasons.  The stair to the right leads to an upper path leading on to the park.

 

11. Fountain in Makati Park

Gated with only one access point, Makati Park, though selectively opened to the public, is primarily used by students coming across the street from For Bonificio High School.  Featuring a variety of programmed areas, this tropical themed fountain contrasts slums on the north bank of the river seen through the trees.

 

 12. River Access

When the river-walk ceases upriver from Makati Park, there are only occasional access through the slums that line the river.

 

13. View North from C5 Bridge

Looking back downriver from the C5 Bridge.

GIF: Growth of Manila

The GIF above is a manipulated satellite representation of Manila’s physical spread over time.  It also shows approximate population  in 50 year increments before 1800 and then 25 year increments after 1800.  The city area extents were extracted from the Lincoln  Institute of Land Policy’s’ Atlas for Urban Expansion.  Also, for more on Urban Comparisons, see LSE’s Measuring The Human Footprint.  Lastly, for more GIFs of urban expansion check out Atlantic Cities.

Manila’s rapid growth since in the 20th century is almost without precedent.   The unquestioned capital and largest city in the Philippines, Manila has been a haven for international economic investment throughout the 20th century.  Like many mega-cities in developing nations, it has not been able to keep up with the influx of people from the impoverished and rural hinterland.  While many large housing developments and new towns around Manila have been planned and designed to accommodate the surging population, it is believed almost half of the city’s residents live in makeshift shanty towns, many of which are built in right-of-ways, and other vulnerable landscapes.  Recurring disasters (especially the recent Typhoon Yolanda) have undoubtedly increased the population even further as ‘disaster refugees’ move in with relatives or live in shanty town.  As the population continues to increase unchecked and largely unplanned, it is hard to imagine how Manila’s infrastructure (both natural and man-made) will be able to cope and adapt.  Flooding in the city is rampant, parts of the city built on land reclamation are sinking, and increased air and water pollution are lowering the quality of life of its citizens.

History Lesson Part 2: Sovereignty in an Archipelago

(For History Lesson part 1 please scroll down to the next post, or click here)

 

Pre-history: a forested landscape

Prior to colonization, some 95% of the Philippine archipelago was forested, and in essence was largely undisturbed by human development.  Given the distance between islands and larger islands precipitous mountain ranges, agriculture clearing was limited to small coastal kingdoms, typically found in the delta of silt depositing rivers.  Perhaps with the exception of the 2000 year-old Banaue Rice Terraces, agriculture did not extend beyond the site lines of the small nipa hut villages that dotted the coastline.

When speculating what the landscape looked like prior to Spanish colonization, one needs to merely look at the places the Spanish nor the Malayo-Polynesians they subjugated never reached.  Due to their remoteness or the hostility of their indigenous inhabitants (or both in the case of Mindanao),  some islands remained largely undeveloped to this day. Generally, the western Philippine island of Palawan was one such island.  Serving as a land bridge to Borneo during the last ice age, early inhabitants existed here in relative isolation from the larger islands of the Philippines and from the Asian mainland.  On the thin long island’s most northern rugged tip, where it begins to break apart in to the sea, the indigenous tribe of the Tagbanwa have existed continuously for some 20,000 years.  Unlike other island-based indigenous groups such as Easter Island’s Rapanui (see Jared Diamond’s Ted Talk on collapse), the Tagbanwa have lived in relative balance with nature.

Coron Island was likely unsettled when the Tagbanwa are believed to have settled here from mainland Palawan 3000-5000 years ago.  The island, covered in mountainous rain forest, steep cliffs, coves, and lagoons was inhospitable to agriculture and thus the people subsisted mostly from fishing, leaving the inner portion of the island largely untouched.   The island measures 22,2448 hectares (86 square miles) and has a contemporary population of  2028 people or about 23 people per sq. mi.  Considering its population has likely increased in modern times, this closely parallels the predicted density of 14 people per sq. m. in the rest of the Philippines at the start of colonization.  In a sense, Coron Island serves as a microcosm of the pre-historical Philippines at large.  Isolated, mountainous, and covered in rain forest, it offers a glimpse of the pre-colonial natural and human landscape.  After previous recognition of the pristine island as a protected Marine reserve (1978), a Tourist Zone (1978), and a Forest Reserve (1998) the Tagbanwa were finally granted partial sovereignty over their land via Ancestral Rights granted by UNESCO and accepted by the Philippine government in 1998.

Satellite image of Coron Island off of the northern tip of Palawan, Philippines.  Note the condition of the islands forest cover compared to the more developed land mass to its North. Source: Google Earth

Tagbanwa beach settlement on Coron Island.  There coastal settlements are conducive to their fishing-based lifestyle.  though vulnerable to storm surges and sea level rise, their simple nipa hut structures are relatively easy to salvage, move, and rebuild.  Photo by Jacon Maentz:  Source

 

Spanish Colonization: agricultural expansion and town planning

When successive waves of conquistadors and catholic missionaries spread out through Luzon and the Visayas regions, they generally established settlements at sites of existing native villages.  As previously noted, one such village was Cebu, where following Magellen’s killing, Spanish conquistador Miguel López de Legazpi returned to form a colony in 1565.  Another example was Maynila (its precolonial name). Legazpi landed at the mouth of the Pasig River in Manila Bay in 1571, quickly learning of the village’s existing trade networks with ports west on the Asian mainland.  With hopes of making Maynila the center of their trade between New Spain (Mexico) and Asia (to become known as the Galleon Trade), in 1590 King Philip II commissioned the first plan of the city’s fortifications.

Like many towns throughout the Philippines, at the center of Manila was a large public square, with public structures facing inward, most notably a catholic church (in Manila the Cathedral of Manila, see photo below). First constructed in 1579 and then re-built of stone like the great cathedrals of Europe in 1592, it was the premier symbol in claiming the city as the capital of the Spanish colony.  Much like the remnant Roman towns found in Spain, the grid and central square model can be found in Spanish influenced cities throughout the Philippines.  Though most towns simply transitioned from the countryside to large estates managed by the Catholic church, Manila’s value as the seat of colonial government, religion, and trade led to expanded fortifications of an oblong circumscribing wall.  Becoming wealthy through the Galleon trade with Mexico,  Manila’s expanding population was held in captivity by the walls that protected it.  By the 1800’s,  the Intramuros (inside the walls) was dark and dense, more reminiscent of a pre-Renaissance European city than the sprawling colonial capital the city was to become.

Satellite image of Manila’s walled Intramuros, the historic Spanish siting of the city.  To the south of the city is Fort Santiago and the Pasig River.  The industrial buildings to the right are built on infill into Manila Bay.  Source: Google Earth

A view of the Spanish-built Manila Cathedral from the Plaza de Roma… the historic center of the Catholic city.

 

American Colonization: infrastructure and western development

When Americans took over the colony, Luzon, the largest and most fertile island in the archipelago, lacked the basic infrastructure necessary to link Manila and other cities to the countryside whose resources the American’s intended to bring to market.  The little infrastructure built by the Spanish was decrepit: roads were unpaved, river crossings were seasonal, and only one rail-line (running  north 100 miles to the port of Dagupan) left the city of Manila.  While many new projects were enacted, most were only partially executed as American politicians wavered on their colonial commitments.

Foreseeing the city’s expansive growth and with the desire to Westernize America’s new colonial capital, the famous American architect and planner, Daniel Burnham was commissioned to re-imagine the ‘Pearl of the Orient”  in the City Beautiful style of the day (as he would for Chicago 4 years later).  Burnham’s simultaneous plan for the Philippine city of  Bagiuo (the mountainous ‘summer capital’) was largely seen through to fruition however, the ambitious plan for Manila was only partially executed.  The plan, modeled in concept on Washington DC, consisted of an expanded central park (The Lunetta) and a series of radial boulevards with an infill grid of diagonal streets to provide for better shade in the equatorial sun.  The plan also included a new shoreline boulevard (Roxas Boulevard),  zoning suggestions to provide ample air circulation, a new water and sewage system, and a new port facility at the mouth of the city’s central river, the Pasig.

Like much of the American commitments to the Philippines, support was inconsistent.  American funds for the plan were limited, and though the Philippine Legislature committed 2 million Philippine Pesos to the plan per year, the incremental implementation left ample room for eventual political disruption.  Much of the accumulated funds for construction were redirected  into agriculture projects to serve the more pressing needs of the country’s majority rural poor, and ultimately the plan was fully halted in 1935 when Philippine President Manuel Quezon moved the capital north creating Quezon City (whose plan was also never fully realized).  Though the partial implementation did leave lasting  improvements to infrastructure and create several distinct civic elements (most notably the shoreline Roxas Boulevard and the enlarged Luneta, the partially built fan-like boulevards that broke through the walls of the Intramurous simply became clogged arteries for the rapid influx of landless rural workers into the city.  Given the plan’s lack of consideration for larger social and economic challenges of a less developed nation, lack of long-term commitment from the Americans, or a sustained political will from Filipino leaders, Manila  is best known as the city that might have been.

For more on the details of Burham’s Plan for Manila check out the book: The Americanization of Manila by Cristina Evangelista Torres.

“The above description of the existing conditions with suggestions as to their most obvious possibilities, shows that improvements of great scope are attainable in Manila by reasonable means. On the point of rapid growth, yet still small in area, possessing the bay of Naples, the winding river of Paris, and the canals of Venice, Manila has before it an opportunity unique in history of modern times, the opportunity to create a unified city equal to the greatest of the Western world with unparalleled and priceless addition of a tropical setting.” -Daniel Burnham on the plan for Manila, 1905.  Source

A view across the reflecting pool (Central Lagoon) of the Lunetta (now Rizal Park) to the Jose Rizal monument.

 

Republic of the Philippines: urban expansion and landscape deterioration 

The agriculture based economy and its reliance on human labor began to drive the county’s population up rapidly following World War II.  Given the lack of land reform following colonialism, most of the land was owned by just a wealthy few.  As such, waves of economic depression led to large migrations of landless laborers into the cities and rapid population increase as families sought to increase the number of provider/laborers in order to survice.  From 1940 to 2010, the population of the Philippines grew from 19,000,000 to 95,000,000 while the population of greater Manila soared from 700,000 to 21,000,000.  Large shanty towns began to pop-up in areas the had been left undeveloped (mostly ecologically sensitive areas such as river banks, polluted shorelines, and infrastructure right-of-ways).  With cycles of political unrest and regime change, the political chaos of the urban centers served as distractions from the continued injustices and ecological destruction found in the countryside.   From 1940-1980 forest cover dropped to a low of 8% of the land cover, ushering in an age of frequent floods, mudslides, air pollution, and drought.

While deforestation in the headwaters of urban watersheds has gotten the most attention (see the 2011 flooding in Mindanao’s Cagayan de Oro), the shear scale of deforestation in some more rural and undeveloped areas also demands attention.  Though these areas have less direct impact on human settlement, the inevitable destruction to biodiversity and valuable carbon consuming rain forest is not without affect.  One such example can be found in the Zimbales mountains of Pangasinan.  Like many undeveloped areas throughout the Philippines, large short term land grants to logging companies led to indiscriminate clear cutting, leaving no trees behind, and with little incentive to replant since the lease expired after 10-15 years.  While there is a campaign to replant much of this denuded landscape, many of the logging leases have sense passed onto surface mining companies, which threaten to further delay possible reforesting.  Additionally, attempts at reforestation here since the 80’s have largely been ineffective as impoverished locals use the area for the production of charcoal and fuel wood.

The particular tract of land pictured below, encompassing some 54 sq mi (140 sq km), is located in the Mangateram foothills of the Zamables Mountains and was likely logged during the early years of the Marcos regime (between 1965 and 1977).  The sharp right (southern) edge of the forest is defined by Manleluag National Park (an area of 2nd generation forest protected since 1940 due to its hot springs).  This and the adjacent forested areas to the north (left) and west (bottom) have recently been declared an Important Biodiversity Area (IBA) by the the Philippines Department of the Environment and Natural Resources (DENR).  Subsequent partnerships with local and international groups have begun a campaign to teach the locals reforestation offering some hope that this devastated area will regenerate, providing both habitat to endangered species, and sustainable ecological services to the local population.

Satellite view of deforestation in the Zimbales Mountains of Pangasinan, Philippines.  Source Google Earth

Looking east at the deforested foothills of the Zimbales Mountains near Margateram, Pangasinan.  Source

History Lesson Part 1: Sovereignty in an Archipelago

Timelines of Sovereign Powers in the Philippines (click to enlarge). 

* American rule was interrupted by the Japanese occupation of WWII from 1942-1945.

** Although the Moros have gone through several evolutions of claiming a politically sovereign Muslim state (since the arrival of Muslim missionaries in Mindanao in the 1300’s), they have existed largely in active conflict against the dominant governing powers of the Philippines.

 

Pre-history

Given the vastness and dispersed nature of the Philippines (over 7,000 islands stretching out for 1000 miles) the island nation’s contentious landscapes cannot be understood without first considering the complexity of its past and its varying attempts at sovereignty.  The archipelago’s human history is largely defined by migrations and invasions: a beach landing, inward exploration, and ultimate subjugation of or by the  preceding inhabitants.  Findings of the Tabon Man in Palawan in 1962 and the subsequent Callao Man in Northern Luzon in 2010 would suggest that the island was inhabited at least 67,000 years ago.  Though the specifics of their origins are unknown, it is likely that these first inhabitants traveled to the Philippines from present day Borneo via the Sunda Landbridge which appeared during the last Ice Age when the sea was some 120 m (390) feet lower than it is today. These first inhabitants are the ancestors of various remnant indigenous groups such as Aetas (Negritos), many of which have recently begun to win rights to their ancestral lands.  When the land bridge subsided, these indigenous peoples existed in isolation until about 2000 years ago when seafaring Malayo-Polynesian/Austronesian groups from the Asian mainland arrived and started assimilating them into their more organized societies.  Despite increasing trade with Chinese sailors and the arrival of Muslim missionaries in Mindanao, no single group dominated, but rather people were fractured into various small ethnic kingdoms, usually consisting of one or two neighboring coastal towns sited near agriculturally productive river deltas.

 

Spanish Colonization

Artists depiction of Ferdinand Magellen planting a cross in the soils of Leyte Island after claiming it for Spain in 1521.  Source

When the globetrotting Ferdinand Magellan erected a cross and a Spanish flag on Leyte Island in 1521, and then sailed to Cebu (then a small kingdom of 700 people, now a metropolitan of 2.5 million), it is believed that the whole archipelago’s population was about 1.5 million, or only 14 people per sq, mi. (compared to 96 million and 828 people per sq. mi. today).  When the Spanish started making settlements a few decades later a remarkable 95% of the archipelago was still rain forest. In addition to rigid Catholicism and numerous disastrous diseases, the 300 year European colonial period brought on extensive mapping of the islands, town planning, extensive agriculture reform, and a highly prejudice application of all the rules of class, law, and culture that had developed in Europe over thousands of years.  Unifyingly named after King Philip II of Spain, this period of intense colonial assimilation through force, catholic education, and economic reform first introduced the notion of total sovereignty to the Philippines.  The Spanish empire in the Philippines was based on agriculture.   Run through the local church parishes, natives (with the exception of the occasional upward bound mestizo) were trapped laboring in the fields.  As the Spanish Empire failed to modernize throughout the 1800’s, the colony became increasingly hostile.  Though a lack of development and reform by the Spanish had kept the islands natural ecosystem intact (still 70% forested), toiling in the fields brought little opportunity to the Filipino people and they began to seek reform and ultimately independence.  Though squashed by the Spanish and then the Americans, early independence leaders such as Jose Rizal, Andrés Bonifacio, and Emilio Aguinaldo laid the vision for an independent sovereign Philippine nation.

 

American Colonization

Photo of American soldiers after capturing Fort San Antonio de Abad, Malate, Philippines (just south of Manila), 13 August 1898. Source

The acquisition of the Philippines following the Spanish-American War did not immediately lead to the formation of an independent nation.  Brought into the war by Cuba’s independence movement against Spain, the Americans looking west from California and Hawaii opened up a second front against the Spanish in the Pacific.  With the help of a Filipino resistance movement (who quite blatantly expected independence), Spain was quickly defeated and America saw its first opportunity at colonialism.  Having technically declared independence in 1898 during the Spanish-American War, further hostilities between Filipino independence seekers and the American occupiers led to the Philippine-American War.  A precursor to Vietnam, the gruesome 3 year war, fought more in the rural jungle than in Manila, saw the death of some 200,000 Filipinos.  Though there was talks of granting independence, the economic greed beneath the feel-good utterances of Manifest Destiny saw the pristine archipelago’s natural resources too ripe not to exploit.  However, always uncomfortable with the hypocrisy of democratic colonialism, over the next 40 years, American’eased’ the Philippines towards self-rule.  While the promise of eventual political sovereignty appeased many, the acquisition of huge tracts of land by American companies and the Mestizo upper class for development continued a long cycle of economic dependence and class inequality.  Meanwhile, democratic reforms were introduced (though mostly available only to the existing elites), modern (English) education became widely available, and expanded infrastructure, and trade improved rapidly strengthened the economy.

Photo of the Leyte Landing Memorial depicting the arrival of General Douglass MacArthur and the American army returning to the Philippines to remove and defeat the Japanese Occupation. Source

Though some Filipinos wanted to become the next Hawaii, the independence movement continued to fester and was close to actualization when the Japanese began their invasion of the Philippines a few hours after bombing Pearl Harbor in 1941.  America’s focus on the European theater, led to a quick Japanese victory as the American’s retreated and ultimately surrendered the islands (leading the the infamous Baatan Death March). The Japanese Occupation was brutal, but their exit from Manila in 1945 was even worse, destroying much of the city and killing as they went.  Though having removed the Japanese from the Philippines, exhausted by the war, on July 6, 1946 the Americans relinquished the islands and the independent Republic of the Philippines was officially recognized.

 

Republic of the Philippines

Photo taken on EDSA road during the People’s Power Revolution in which the people of the Philippines filled the city streets in popular revolt against the political corruption of President/Dictator Ferdinand Marcos.  Source

Though technically independent, American influences continued to drive Philippine development and policy for much of the twentieth century.  America kept a close eye on its former colony, supporting political leaders who supported favorable US policies, preventing the spread of peasant-led communist movements, and ensuring that the country remained useful for American trade.  Given the country’s social mistrust and the tendency of political leaders to become indebted to their family and closest supporters, political corruption was fervent throughout much of the twentieth Century.  Perhaps most pervasive during the 21 year dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos (1965-1986), many infrastructural, economic, and development projects were designed to provide income to their owners and kickbacks to politicians rather than serve the needs of the people.  During this period short-term land grants for mining and logging lead to rapid deforestation (as low as 8% of land cover by the 1990’s).  Continued corruption and political acts of violence during the Marcos regime ultimately led to the People Power Revolution,  and a re-reinstatement of the constitution and democratic voting.  The modern Philippine state is still challenged by button-up communist movements, Muslim separatists, varying regional/ethnic dialects, and significant class polarization, yet its growing economy and increasingly fair elections promise a more stable political climate in which the island can begin to heal many of the wounds of its complex past.

Geography Lesson: Scaling the Philippines

Coming from the North American continent, its hard to perceive the Philippine geography.  Composed of 7,107 islands (though sea level rising may start reducing some of the flatter atolls), the Philippines stretches north south for some 1,150 miles (1,850 km).  Filled with several vast mountain ranges, wide river valleys, and plains punctured by conical peaks, it is a volcanized landscape that rose from the sea floor.  Unlike the glaciated subtractive landforms found in most of the Northern Hemisphere, much of the Philippines landmass is still rising up from the sea.

Though experienced in isolation, if conglomerated, the Philippines landmass has an area of 115,831 sq. mi. (300,000 sq. km.), or approximately the area of Arizona.  Though consisting of 81 governmental provinces (politically equivalent to US states), the country is best understood through its three principal regions: Luzon, Visayas, and Mindano.

From Essential Urbanism to Essential Landscapes

All posts prior to this post have been logged under the blog title, Essential Urbanism:  a collection of writings and design work on architecture, urban food systems, and logistics stemming from my undergraduate architectural thesis, Logistical Urbanism: Food City.  Though dormant since April 2011, this blog has been revamped and renamed Essential Landscapes: research and thoughts on contentious landscapes.  All posts hence forth will be logged under this title and its theme.  More specifically, given that I am currently based in Manila Philippines, its landscapes and surrounds will feature as the  primary subject of this blog for the first half of 2014.

Final Production

(Un)Fortunately the final week before the final thesis presentations has arrived.  The project has settled relatively well with only a few things left to design and resolve at the urban scale.  The masterplan of “Food City” is mostly complete, and I have nearly completed designing the moments of juxtaposition and interaction between the commuter-scape and the food distribution center (logistical-scape) below.  Here a few process images as I being production for my final presentation today.  Click on the images to enlarge.

Scheme 1 Model

Scheme 2  Model

View at Food City entry.

Test rendering taken at the basketball court portion of the commuter-scape.