Good afternoon. So, in this afternoon... I will show you what we did in the Metropolitan Theater.
An old structure in Manila that is being destroyed. What will we do to revive it? So, as a consulting architect of the Metropolitan Theater, I thought...
that has a tagline, metamorphosis, from the name of the myth. But if we compare the metamorphosis in the Philippines, this is Banyuhay, a new animal. meaning we will give new life to an old structure.
So it will be a symbolic death for a rebirth. So this is now the Metropolitan Theater, abandoned for many years due to various circumstances. So why do we need to give new life to the Metropolitan Theater? Because it is a very important treasure, a treasure of culture. It is actually declared by the National Museum as a national cultural treasure in 2010. As an architecture, it expresses a new style.
In the 1930s, the Art Deco style. The Art Deco was a departure from the classical. Like this building. This is a classical building designed by the same architect, Juan Arellano, who designed the post office building. These buildings are very temple-like.
Greco-Roman in tradition. But when you look at Art Deco, it was a departure. It was a departure because it upheld a new style, the art deco.
The art deco, what is art deco? It is simply an exotic style that deviated from the classical. So the art deco was also facilitated by global networks of technology such as cinema. At this time, exotic motifs were very popular because it was a time of archaeological rediscovery like King Tut. So, So these were also adopted in the Philippines.
So significant, this style, is that it employed a Philippinized motif. So the import from Paris, which is the bastion of Art Deco, was transformed using Filipino motif. For example, we have here the fruit salad, ceiling of the Metropolitan Theater, which contains mangoes and bananas.
These are typical Filipino... symbols. And then we have flora and fauna. So apart from the art deco, this building promoted a sense of nationalism in a time of a colonial social milieu. Remember that it's all temple-like.
The buildings are all temple-like, the capitolios. This is an architecture of democracy because for a mere price of a ticket, people could easily enter. A temple of drama, a temple of entertainment, and so on, with a luxurious style. So apart from those artifacts I mentioned, there are also important treasures at the Metropolitan Theater, like the paintings of Amorsolo, the sculptures of Francesco Monti, the stained glass window, and of course, one of the iconic statues that we can find.
at the Met is the dancer, which is the basis of our Filipino Wonder Woman, Darna. So the Metropolitan Theater as a cultural venue served many, many entertainment forms from sarsuelas to opera and even cinema. It was here that Mickey Mouse had his debut in the Philippines. And Giliwko, the first film of LBN, was shown here with President. and Kezon as the guest of honor.
So these are some of the performances done in the Met. But during the war, the Met was destroyed. After the war, there was a shift in entertainment form. There was a change, so theater no longer became popular.
So gradually, the building declined. So within three decades, after... The war.
The Metropolitan Theater was restored but its function changed. It became... Ice cream parlor, boxing arena, basketball court, hotel, motel, etc.
Name it. They embraced all the functions. If only the walls could talk. But when Imelda Marcos had her power as the governor of Metro Manila, she wanted this Met to be reborn as a gift to the city of Manila.
So in her Imeldific fashion, the reconstruction of the MET was quick. So actually, we were demolishing some of her additions because they are structurally unsound. By the way, Imelda Marcos, to do this rebirth of the MET after World War II, she had to resort to borrowing 7 million from GSIS. This is what caused the problem after the end of the revolution. Metropolitan theater was revived under the Marcos regime.
It was named the Teatro ng Mamamayang Pilipino. There were many memorable performances that took place here, from theaters to operas to sarsuelas, and even in the collective imagination of the common-massa, the film industry. sa pelikula na immortalize yung Met.
Kung makikita nyo yung finale ng Between Walang Ningning, sa Metropolitan Theater yun. Yung showdown. And also, Vilma Santos'variety show every Friday.
In fact, it was in the Vilma Santos show that I was able to enter the mythical palace of the Metropolitan Theater. It was an awe-inspiring experience. It was 1989. So I had no... dream of restoring this. But because of financial difficulties, the Metropolitan Theater had to close because they were actually battling a sequestration because they borrowed money, the Met borrowed money from the GSIS and this eventually was forfeited.
And there was a court battle and that court battle had a lull in the existence of the Met. So, he was hit. So, because of that court battle, until finally, the court, the Supreme Court, decided that the owners of the Met is the GSIS.
And GSIS, in turn, offered the property to the NCCA. NCCA is the National Culture for Culture and the Arts, our ad hoc ministry of culture. So, at this point in time, I was called by the NCCA to lead the project.
So... What do we do? This is an old building. Most of us don't have experience here.
At the time, there was a lost generation. No one had experience in meth. How do we bring this meth to a new renaissance? Initially, I started a webpage, The Metamorphosis.
It's just a social network apparatus of our agency. What is happening? What is the news?
Etc. This will give me time to prepare the plans and evaluate the status of the Metropolitan Theater. Its structural stability, the level of degradation, etc.
But to do a very comprehensive and scientific method of of scanning and surveying the building. We need a clean building. Clear of debris, everything. So, I thought, before launching Cleanup Drive, because I thought a lot that Metropolitan Theater will never be reborn as only a theater. It should be something else.
My initial concept is that it will be a cultural hub. It will be a multifunctional building for arts and culture. Libre. Libre lahat.
So it's a workshop space. So my initial concept is that it should be a changge for culture. So pag changge, everybody's welcome.
It's an exchange of ideas, cultural ideas, artistic ideas, etc. But to do that, I had to consult the people. When you do...
Restoration, kailangan laging defer to the people. So, sino ba yung mga users? Of course, you will ask the former users.
The stars, the directors, the set designers, the students. The students, si Kuya Germs. Kuya Germs and the owners of new theaters in Manila, like Resorts World, so we have a dialogue with them. So definitely, the idea is that we shouldn't compete with CCP because it's for the rich.
So it should be a mass because this is the peak of the Filipino market. So that's why Kuya Germs is there. Kuya Germs said, It should be a museum of Philippine entertainment.
Like Hollywood. So he told me to put a star in front of the Met. Like in the Walk of Fame.
But a week later, Kuya Gervs appeared. So we already knew what to do with the Met. We already had a schematic.
But I said we need to clean it up. So we can do the scanning, the ground penetrating radar. these are the new technologies for restoration.
So I thought, there needs to be publicity. There needs to be publicity in the Metropolitan Theater. So I said, let us invite students, 50 students, to symbolically clean, symbolically clean, one time, big time. So we set up a call for student volunteers and this changed everything. because our website shut down because we received more than 20,000.
So, it means, I was touched because the youth have an interest in heritage. Or maybe they're just intrigued by the building, what's in it. So, okay.
But because of that, because of... overwhelming response. So we launched a clean-up drive.
So everyone could, not 50, 150 first. But we did this because of the success, we did this every two weeks. Actually, if we add it up, we spent more on the clean-up drive. Because we fed people.
We have a program, we have a dance dance. You need to give the building to the people, to the people of the city. So, different sectors of society participated. So, I said, actually, we have a higher cost because if we get a professional cleaner, a contractor, it will cost us about 250,000. In this clean-up drive, we did about half a million pesos.
But what is the philosophy behind this? I am actually giving an opportunity to a new generation of Filipino to claim ownership to the Metropolitan Theater which they don't have any personal experience or personal memory. So I let them have their memories inside the Met.
So that when the time comes, they can pass through there and their children can be with them in this building. I'm with the philosophy of living here again. It's more than the money, it is the way to reclaim, to be part of Philippine heritage. So it's actually coming together for heritage. So apart from students and professional volunteers, we had even the family of Juan Arellano, who is the architect of the building, from the very beginning, participated.
Even the Philippine Army, the Philippine Air Force. But before we conduct any of these cleanup drives, we orient everyone. So at least, we have an education that we can leave behind.
So in their own country, they can apply the methodology that they learned in the Metropolitan Theater. So even firemen, when this was the time when we didn't have water, so the firemen of the whole of Manila went to the site. When I went there, it was an overwhelming experience.
Someone loved the summit, I thought it was just me. So this was our activity. So to make it more exciting, the cleaning, after cleaning, the volunteers are... We tour the building. We explain the artifacts, the art inside, what is the significance of this, what is the motif of this, and where it comes from.
So, it's a bit art historical, because I'm an art historian. Then, we show the deteriorating parts, and what we will do here. Those are the bananas and mangoes. They're already ripe, so they can fall.
This is a volunteer who rappelled to clean the precast ornaments. So he was the father of Conrado de Leon, the designer of the precast ornaments. So it's a way to reconnect with the Lord.
So intergenerational. So it's a building that connects people. So this was over by Jario.
So, there are so many. But, you cleaned the Met, but what is a building without an event, without an activity? So, we had to read New Life. Even though we haven't...
Because while cleaning, we are making the plan. So, let's invent some events. So, we had events, for example, we hosted the London Biennale in Manila.
in September. Actually, it's expensive. I spent almost 1 million.
Actually, it's the government's money. But it had a good effect. So, it became an alternative space for displaying and appreciating art beyond the context of a museum. So, we decided to make it more social. So, we lived through lighting.
Actually, we don't have that current. So, there really needs to be something happening, an event. So, artists would contribute their works. They will do performances.
For example, Agnes Arellano. So, these are some of the events we hosted before the Met formally closed. So, I also lit up the lights because if UP lights up, I will also light up the Met.
So it was in December also. So when we did the survey of the ornaments, we did some line drawings as well. So we translated these line drawings into coloring books.
So we published a coloring book and gave it for free to the public. Then we said, okay, let's do this. Let's let people build their own Metropolitan Theater.
So you can download a paper model from the NCCA website and to create your own Metropolitan Theater in your own homes. So again, to give the general public, what is a Metropolitan Theater? So even our fence, the construction fence, it needs to be, what is it?
Danger. I'm going to get a little bit of a look. We need to engage with the people. I need to speak Filipino. I should speak the language of the masses.
So we made our fence colorful. And for several months, before they put the tarpaulin, we only put graffiti. For several months, except for May 1, there was no graffiti. That means, I saw that there are people who are suffering from their heritage. They were given an opportunity.
So, we finished the plan, we built the building, and we are now doing the Metropolitan Theater. With the help of Filipino citizens, this will gradually be revived towards a new life. So, this is what happened the day before yesterday. We had a little demolition because to make MET live, the function should be new.
Then, we were envisioning, we were talking to Mayor Erap, we needed to reroute the traffic and we will start with MET. MET as a catalyst for the urban renaissance of Manila as a cultural hub. So, things will follow. It will be interlinked with the National Museum in Traburos.
And eventually, we will also build the post office building to complete the cultural ensemble. So with that, thank you very much.