HOMAGE TO PASIG
On Her 440th Founding Anniversary
Pasig has been around almost as long as Manila has (earliest records of it date to the mid-15th century) and longer than many of the peripheral settlements that now form the homogenous mass of the metropolis.
This town-by-the-river-of the-same-name has nurtured generations of townsfolk based on its location as a gateway to a proud province and market for its produce. This started back when riverboats and the tranvia were the main modes of transport. Prosperity shone in its inhabitants and this blessed them with the opportunity for regular social celebration and expressions of civic largesse in the form of good schools, a well-maintained town plaza and other public amenities. Like the river, Art and culture in Pasig, flow in abundance. The town itself has undergone some change since the 1950s and the 1960s when it hosted post-war industry an activity that later on went further south. Today it thrives as a city that serves as a residential district, business zone (Ortigas), educational Mecca. Pasig City is striving to cope with more changes – the increase in residential population, the effect of C-5 access, the sprawl of surrounding towns and brownfields development (changing land uses along EDSA). It has, however, the advantage of conserving much of its old-world, small-town character in its center, a distinctiveness lost in much of Metro Manila. It also, most importantly, has and sustains a vibrant and rich cultural life– aided in no small part by resident artists and cultural workers as well as museums – a gem of heritage that is as charming and robust as Pasig itself. Horacio Evelio Dimanlig BluPrint V3 2003 As a homage to all these, Pasig Art Club in cooperation with the Arts and Culture Development Program of the Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Pasig once again comes up with an art exhibit in celebration of the city’s 440th founding anniversary. |
EXCERPTSLong before the town that became a city was the river Pasig, whose name typically diverges into varying claims of etymology.
A fancied one that is nearly ridiculously romantic and obviously fictional is that a doomed lover Virgilio, hapless in the deep waters, calls out to hs beloved- “Paz, sigue me! (Paz come with me!)” -Alfred Yuson, “Pasig as Cradle of History” |
ARTWORKS |
In 1852 a bahay na bato or stone house was the first of its kind to be built in Pasig- later to be known as Bahay na Tisa of Don Cecilio Tech y Cabrera whose great grandson is Cerlos Tech who became the town historian.
-Alfred Yuson, “Pasig as Cradle of History” |
1992 marked the rapid growth and progress of Pasig City with Vicente Eusebio as mayor. Public school buildings begin to flourish in almost every barangay. In 2000, the Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Pasig was inaugurated.
-Joel P. Salud, “Pasig Landmarks” |
If New York has its Central Park, Pasig has its own rainforest (park) found at the epicenter of its entertainment hub. Known as the Pasig City Rainforest Park (the park is later renamed Rave-Rainforest Adventure Experience). The sprawling city government property of Barangay Maybunga is wholly devoted to sports and educational activities.
-Joel P. Salud, “Pasig Landmarks” |
No city in the world can do without an agora or marketplace.
…The marketplace is the forerunner of the international convention center, where fellowship gives birth to ideas and concept…Pasig City’s 3-storey public market stands right smack in the middle of the metropolis as the largest single public market in the country. -Joel P. Salud, “Pasig Landmarks” |
Its river is the main artery of national origin in native kingdoms suzerain, and friend to larger kingdoms and cultures foreign to the kin of what could become an insular Catholic Philippines. Start with that original settlement born by the Pasig River, mother of a megalopolis now one of the world’s most populated. Today, this river is nearly forgotten by armies of commuters and motorists in ceaselessly proliferating Metro Manila.
Seldom does contemporary Pasig hear that its river of origin remains most enduring, arguably more powerful than a road system connecting it ever farther, north and south. -Sylvia L. Mayuga “River of Memory” |
Pasig City is a relatively young city, in terms of the age of its residents. The median age of its residents is 24 and it has a population growth rate of 2.4%. Thus school-based social services delivery has a maximum impact. (Also) One project is the Pasig Youth Movement for the empowerment and training of out-of-school youth…This movement now has 700 members and promises to provide an alternative venue of meaningful expression for the city’s marginalized youths.
-Alma Anonas-Carpio, “Services for Social Change” |
The Mutya long real to the folk mind broke into Lola Basyang’s wildly popular serialized radio stories as Ang Sirena sa Uli-uli ng ilog Pasig, living in a whirlpool called Ena, enticing the farmer Siso to tragic love. Time and tide submerged the mermaid but the Mutya lived on, a feminine archetype of virtud, the magical power sought from Nature by Filipinos in city and countryside.
-Sylvia L. Mayuga “River of Memory” |
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