The Rojas-Borja House: going back in Time

Have you ever imagined what it might be like to go back in time to nearly nine decades ago?

Just recently I was thrilled to find myself inside one of the most beautiful and best-preserved heritage houses of Malabon, the ROJAS-BORJA HOUSE. Ascending the gleaming hardwood staircase, I instantly felt myself transported back in time to a gracious, bygone era. 

A welcoming sight

A quiet reading nook

Charming decorative touches all around

Pictures are not enough to describe how it felt to be there... as if Time had stood still in this house, and I was seeing everything exactly the way it was when the original owners, Manuel Borja and his wife Leona Rojas lived there in the 1920s.

Unmistakable elegance surpassing any modern architectural design you can think of

The feeling of connection to the past was so palpable that, despite the din of jeepneys, tricycles and humanity surrounding it, inside that house, I could be oblivious to them all.  It was like having Christopher Reeve's antique penny in his coat pocket in "Somewhere in Time" --  I was back in time and that was the reality of my moment. 

Too bad, as soon as I stepped out on the sidewalk after the antique wrought-iron gate closed behind me, it was back to the 2010 reality of Malabon - more specifically, an unsightly concrete barangay hall that had the temerity to stand alongside and even block our view of a heritage gem!

Of one thing I am certain: even though the face of Malabon may have changed in ways that we no longer recognize, as long as we have our rich heritage, there is still much of her soul left to cherish...



My profound thanks to Dr. Zenaida Borja Gonzales for graciously letting me experience going back in time in their beautiful ancestral house.


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This Used to be My Neighborhood

To start off my rediscovery experience of Malabon, my son and I took a quick walk around our old neighborhood in Barangay Concepcion one Sunday last month before going to a family gathering at my Dad's house.  We retraced the path I used to take from our house near the corner of General Luna Street and Governor Pascual Avenue, going through Paez Street to C. Arellano, where I used to take a jeepney going to Bayan.



BORJA HOUSE
Built in 1923, the BORJA HOUSE boasts of many architectural details that was characteristic of houses during that time.  I think it is one of the most beautiful and best-preserved houses in Malabon.  I've always loved passing by this house and I hope that the present owners will continue to preserve it as a legacy for future generations.  It is such a heritage gem that I feel so proud of because it is right there in my neighborhood.  It's too bad that an unsightly barangay hall and covered basketball court were built right beside it, thus blocking the magnificent sweeping side view of the house from what used to be an open-air plaza.

GONZALES HOUSE (also known as the PAEZ HOUSE)
Built in 1877, the GONZALES HOUSE is simple compared to the Borja House; nevertheless I'm glad that the owners seem to be maintaining it because they've fixed and repainted the exterior. As you can see from the picture below, the new level of Paez Street is already half the height of its ground floor. This is the familiar fate of many houses in Malabon -- it seems that the only response to the city's perennial flooding problem is to keep on raising the level of our streets. In some instances street levels have been raised twice or thrice. Perhaps in another five years this house will just be a bungalow!

MARIO LUNA HOUSE
On C. Arellano Street are two heritage houses that stand proudly side by side. One is the MARIO LUNA HOUSE which was built in the 1890s. Just like the Gonzales House, its ground floor has become much lower than street level. But again, I am grateful that the owners are trying to preserve it because the once-peeling-off exterior has been given a fresh coat of paint. The embellishments painted white against the brown background can also be better seen now and makes the facade look charming.

TEODORO (formerly JOSE LUNA) HOUSE
The TEODORO (LUNA) HOUSE has been more fortunate than its neighbor because its ground floor is higher -- still three steps up from the street. I remember, though, back when the level of C. Arellano had not yet been raised, how this house used to look even more imposing in height. Unlike the Mario Luna and the Gonzales Houses which have changed the color of their exteriors, the Teodoro (Luna) House has always been an elegant white with dark trimmings from as far back as I can remember. During those days, I never minded being out in the sun while waiting for a jeepney ride because I could always distract myself appreciating these two houses.

BENEDICTO LUNA HOUSE
The unique feature of the BENEDICTO LUNA HOUSE is that it has three floors, unlike most heritage houses I've seen. Even in its present state of disrepair, you can still see its elegant design. How beautiful it must have looked during its glory days. With some repair work and a fresh coat of paint, it can still outclass the modern-design building beside it!

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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