MANILA, Philippines ? It?s all about allowing modern development to happen in an old neighborhood. But why not development that improves, rather than deteriorates, the quality of life enjoyed but taken for granted by its residents?

That is the basic issue at the root of the Santa Ana controversy.

That development must happen at the expense of quality of life is a long misunderstanding between local residents, conservationists, local governments and real estate developers.

Take Santa Ana. It is one of those exceptional neighborhoods in congested Manila that still maintains its traditional quality of life today.

It is where long-time neighbors have known each other?s families for generations, worshipped together at the same church, attended schools in the area, and would walk to Santa Ana Market and the row of mom-and-pop shops surrounding it where residents would regularly meet each other and keep up with the latest happenings. There is a great sense of belonging.

Keeping the neighborhood feel of Santa Ana is the issue. So why can?t the new development be designed with an eye to maintain, or even possibly enhance, the neighborhood feel?

Maintaining the neighborhood feel is where the mix of old and new architecture comes in, where the old buildings can be re-used and refitted with more up-to-date hardware and facilities to allow more modern uses.

Probably the last of the remaining turn-of-the-century homes along the Pasig River in Santa Ana, historic structures that are still useful in our contemporary times could be reused and integrated into modern developments.

Heritage structures establish a sense of permanence in a neighborhood. Since we are conditioned to think of heritage as having to be monumental buildings like the Manila Post Office, we fail to appreciate everyday heritage that give so much image and flavor to neighborhoods like Santa Ana.

It would have been wonderful to have kept intact the twin late-Spanish colonial houses on Herran (now Pedro Gil) Street, which was formerly the Columban Fathers residence and before that, the Franciscan Missionaries of Mary residence.

Following the architectural reuse logic, why not save all of the old houses of Santa Ana and incorporate them into a modern development?

If the Jesuit House, also a turn-of-the-century house along the Pasig River, must be sold, then let it be sold for the best price it can command. But let it be stipulated that because of its historic value (it was the location of the planning meetings and broadcasts that culminated in Edsa 1), whatever development is planned for the site should preserve the house.

Next to the Jesuit House is the stone-and-wood Spanish colonial house where the Lichauco family has resided for over 50 years, a veritable Santa Ana landmark and testimony to the vanishing lifestyle of one of the last of Manila?s riverside neighborhoods.
There, also on old Herran Street, OB Montessori has taken over and successfully expanded another of the old Santa Ana houses on the Pasig riverbank into a bustling school, an outstanding example of architectural reuse of a heritage building.

A new Herran Street of the 21st century that combines old and new architecture that would flank both sides of the long and narrow Plaza Calderon would be quite an urban planning achievement for Manila indeed.

Just around the corner from Herran, behind the venerable Santa Ana church, is wonderful Plaza Hugo, an architectural jewel unknown even to Santa Ana residents.

Almost intact are the heritage structures that line the sides of Plaza Hugo. To revive the plaza, all it would take is some traffic control and landscaping, a new coat of paint for the structures around the plaza, and Manila would have reclaimed one of its most charming urban plazas.

The buildings around Plaza Hugo, as well as the turn-of-the-century houses on Herran, are not monumental; these are modest architecture, examples of everyday heritage that is taken for granted by most Filipinos.

Unlike the monumental heritage of places like, say, Vigan, modest Santa Ana heritage shows how the more unpretentious Filipinos lived in the past, and where the unpretentious of today continue living. And its ?everyday heritage? makes it totally worth conserving.

If Santa Ana heritage were to vanish, its loss would be irreparable and it would forever change the Santa Ana neighborhood lifestyle.

Talk on church heritage accord

Fr. Milan Ted Torralba, canon lawyer and national heritage advocate, speaks on the Concordat signed by the Vatican and the Philippines for the conservation of church cultural property, April 25, 9 a.m., at the Bonifacio Room, Museo ng Maynila (formerly Army Navy Club), Luneta.

The talk is organized by the Heritage Conservation Society (HCS). Minimum donation (P300 for guests, P200 for HCS members and P100 for students) includes lunch.

Contact the HCS Secretariat at 521-2239, or e-mail hcs_secretariat@yahoo.com for inquiries and reservations.

E-mail the author at pride.place@gmail.com.