MANILA, Philippines — We all have heard about Daniel Burnham, the renowned, mustachioed American architect, and city planner who was sent to the Philippines in the wake of the destructive Filipino-American war. In Manila, Burnham redesigned the bay area, the Luneta, and converted some ancient arrabales into a  civic core; he also did  Baguio.

To this day, despite the LRT, Burnham’s elegant civic core remains the showcase of imposing neo-classical buildings of reinforced concrete designed by Tomas Mapua, Juan Arellano, Antonio Toledo,  who were among the first batch of pensionados sent to American universities  for degrees in engineering and architecture. Surprisingly, Arch. Burnham thought the insalubrious  esteros could be useful and beautiful.

In his report, “Proposed Improvements at Manila” submitted to the U.S. War Department on 28 June 1905, Burnham described the esteros as such: “The narrow canals or esteros ramifying throughout Manila, with their almost stagnant water and their unsanitary mud banks, would appear at first sight to be undesirable adjuncts of this city. Yet, for transportation purposes they are of the utmost value,  and in spite of the serious problems involved in properly widening, bridging, and maintaining them they should be preserved.”

If Burnham weren’t so famous (he designed Chicago’s lakeshore and parts of Washington, DC), the Bureau of Insular Affairs would probably have ignored his report, but I suppose  they took his word that “...In the coast cities of the Orient, esteros are numerous and it is a long-fixed habit of the people to transport goods upon them, their availability for the poorest boatman making them peculiarly valuable.”

However, Burnham did say that “certain of the esteros should be filled up and the others widened and dredged to a practical depth; all of them should be provided with masonry banks. So treated, they will offer an economical and unobjectionable means of freight landing that will greatly contribute to the prosperity of the city.

A complete development of the estero system would comport an estero connection, as suggested by Maj. James F. Case, between the Pasig River and the Vitas Channel, while an amplification of the estero system connect with the Pasig River near Santa Ana, and opening into the bay through the San Antonio estero, might serve by its independent channels materially to diminish the danger of overflow of the Pasig.”

I dug up Burnham’s report when I heard about Metropolitan Manila Development Authority’s  (MMDA) plan to cover the Santa Ana estero so an elevated highway can be constructed. Perhaps MMDA Chairman Francis Tolentino  should review previous plans like the Burnham one.

“The estero, it should be remembered, “Burnham said “is not only an economical vehicle for the transaction of public business; it can become, as in Venice, an element of beauty. Both beauty and convenience dictate a very liberal policy toward  the development  of these valuable waterways” – words of  wisdom from the past. (gemma 601@yahoo.com)