The Journey Begins

I've lived in Malabon since I was six. However, for the last 18 years, I've lived away from the heart of it, in a gated community along its rim. In occasional visits to our family home in Barangay Concepcion, I've watched, appalled, at how the town has succumbed to modern-day maladies. The unresolved flooding problem, rampant informal settlements and environmental degradation - are these symptoms or are they effects of suburban decay? I leave it up to the social scientists to determine. All I know is that, as far as I could see, my beloved town had gone the way of most towns caught up by what ails our country and our society today. So in my heart I said goodbye to the town I loved, and with great dismay said hello to the city it has become and I wish it were not.

The town's descent certainly did not happen overnight. It took years. But I believe it began with the filling up of Dagat-Dagatan, which served as a catch basin not only for Malabon but for surrounding towns and cities as well. That monumental mistake resulted in our town's massive, never-before flooding problem and in my view, triggered the onslaught of informal settlers. These problems have remained through the years and have taken their toll on the quality of life in Malabon.

But it was mostly those in the heart of town who suffered simply because they were the ones who had to wade through flood water when it was high tide or be trapped inside Malabon when flooding rendered streets leading out of town impassable. It was they who had to walk each day through littered streets, pass by places overrun by settlers, or see some unsightly new structure blocking the view and the flow of soft breezes. Me? I was peacefully ensconced in its periphery and for the most part of 18 years, oblivious.

Suburban decay in Malabon became real to me a few years ago when I started to notice how it was beginning to creep up in my Dad's neighborhood. Litter everywhere... garbage mounds right on the street corner... vagrants answering nature's call or sleeping in our alley... All these had the effect of something stealthily creeping up on me. But what came as a jolt was when they built an unsightly barangay hall and covered basketball court on the plaza right next to one of our town's heritage gems, the Borja House. Now, the sweeping view of that majestic house from the once open-air plaza is gone. From that angle all that one can see now is this unsightly structure standing alongside a beautiful heritage house - an unwitting illustration of Malabon's elegant past and its dowdy present. At that point, I thought I could hardly be blamed if I was beginning to feel a sense of hopelessness at what was happening to Malabon.

Then three years ago I read about a group that was organizing heritage tours of Malabon, hoping to promote interest in its rich heritage. My heart leapt and yes, I began to feel hopeful again. Unfortunately I was not able to join their tour that time. And in the intervening years, the everyday realities of my own life took over and my personal hopes and wishes for Malabon had to occupy a back seat. But maybe this beloved town that I've relegated into the dim corridors of my heart wants to take front and center again because a Facebook friend posted vintage photos of Malabon on his site and I became nostalgic.

Now I am dreaming again and feeling hopeful for the town of my youth.

Thanks to the group of Atty. Ramon Lucas and Arch. Richard Bautista who try to keep the love alive for Malabon's rich heritage by organizing those tours, and to my Facebook friend Manny Alba, who posted the vintage photos above on his site -- you have rekindled my passion and inspired hope in my heart that all is not lost for this once serene and gracious town we love.

For in spite of everything that has happened to Malabon, there remains in it much beauty - the beauty of its heritage and its soul. We only need to peel away the layers of apathy and neglect to let its beauty shine through again.

This, then, will be our shared journey of rediscovery.

"My Malabon" is not just me but all of us... who love Malabon and have "ownership" of it because it is a part of who we are and who we hope to be.

God bless Malabon!
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