INSIGHT | Plaza Independencia's new look

| by J.D. VELEZ

| Blogger

You have to hand it to Mayor Mike Rama. He has spruced up the city in less than a year in office. To date, he has either repainted or renovated the Cebu City Medical Center, the City Hall, Sugbo Plaza, Cebu City Library and Museum, and the latest, Plaza Independencia, as seen here.

There's not much to discuss with the other projects. They're moves in the right direction. Plaza Independencia, however, is an interesting case. It is a significant public square as it is Cebu's premier plaza during the Spanish colonial period, then known as the Plaza Maria Cristina. It was fronting the seat of Spanish government in the island, the Plaza de Gobierno.

As in all Spanish towns and cities, these three are fixtures: the Church, the Government House and the Public Square. These three were present in the area of Plaza Independencia. Just a stone-throw are the Cathedral and the Basilica Minore in honor of the Sto. Nino de Cebu. And just like many European cities which were often besieged by enemies, there is the fort right next to the Plaza which saved the Spaniards when Leon Kilat almost defeated them on 3April 1898. And where wealthy Don Jacinto Velez y Roa was incarcerated after his son, Marcial Velez, Cebu's chief of police during the early years of American rule, rejoined the revolutionaries. But that's another story.

Going back to Plaza Independencia, there's no greater tribute to Miguel Lopez de Legaspi than the monument right in the heart of the plaza in honor of the great conquestador who conquered Cebu and the rest of the country, which his predecessors failed to achieve. So you see, the plaza is very much a Spanish fixture as the fort and basilica.

Together with the American-era constructed customs house, and post office, they gave the place an interesting historical mix. Two colonial eras represented by the structures they left behind standing side by side. I had no problem with eclecticism. We are a postmodern, post-colonial city and naturally, things don't blend seamlessly. There are always structures left behind by discarded world views.

Now, the Plaza looks like part of a Mormon Church complex. It's all white structures and green grass. In fact, it looks familiarly similar to the Mormon Temple complex in the erstwhile Juan Velez property in Lahug. Both places even look like they have the same palm specie planted. The funny thing is, instead of complementing the Spanish Fort San Pedro, the erstwhile Spanish plaza now blends with the American Malacanang sa Sugbo, the old customs house renovated by Gloria Arroyo and now abandoned by Pnoy. If that was their intention, then, they've succeeded. It doesn't have that old eclectic mix I used to find amusing and interesting whenever I was in the place.

Of course, the plaza now looks clean, functional, modern, utilitarian, useful. But where did the Spanish plaza go, Mayor? Perhaps, buried under the rubble of the tunnel construction? And we thought, only pre-Spanish artifacts were reduced to shards to be displayed in situ style at the Museo Sugbo.