Just this June several things were being built, reconstructed and damaged in my hometown. As I am writing this blog the outside of our house feels like Venice - without the gondolas and ornamented palazzos. baha nanaman sa amin sa kadahilanang nasira ang prinsa (a piece of architecture built to control the rising of the water due to high-tide). What makes it more interesting is that the water is almost knee-high. Malabon is truly a place that would sink in the map without the help from the series of dams and architecture used to control the amount of water that would flow in the streets of the city. The flood alone makes the flow of traffic in our place worse. But wait, there's more! Three of the major roads in our city io also beiong repaired/constructed, reconstructed/improved at the moment. The former 30 mins travel time has gone to more than an hour! I just hope everything will finish in time... the city government was like constructing  the endless walls of China that stretches for several kilometers (lols). I just wished they did it last summer.

One glimpse of my hometown. Ang Atlantis ng Metro Manila... Malabon City (yey). It's rare to see Malabon on the news when its dry... usually it's only shown when rainy season comes. I don't know why(?) hehehe. Heres a view that is not seen by everyone. Malabon is more than the famous pansit Malabon.There are many places beside the Malabon Zoo. And we don't ride a boat everyday lols.

Here's my introduction for my paper in UP about our place:

Malabon’s Architecture: A flowing signifier of power and change

Rare are the situations that people think of great food such as pancit Malabon, fresh seafoods, “sapin-sapin” and grand old houses when Malabon comes to mind. Gone are the days that former residents go back to their distinguished ancestral houses for family reunions or plain weekend sorties. They fear treading the Malabon flood waters born out of rain and high tide. From famous to infamous, that is Malabon now, living the moniker “flood capital of Metro Manila”. This essay will try to discuss some things that were not as talked about as the infamous “Pancit Malabon”. This paper would be discussing how Malabon’s architecture has been a signifier of power and change. Man is a product of his environment. The way he thinks, acts, and feels is largely influenced by his physical environment, family, school, community and church. Architecture is like a keeper of history and time. With walls that serve as the records to historical events and limitless stories, every corner of a building can offer a wide amount of interesting information.

"Philippine architecture is an elusive thing, because while it makes full use of modern technology, it is a residue of the different overlays of foreign influences left in the Philippines over the centuries … What resulted may have been a hybrid, a totally new configuration of Philippine architecture."
- Leandro Locsin, National Artist for Architecture

The said residue is prominent in the architecture of my hometown. Something that has made me astounded since I was a kid. The first part of the paper will be giving an overview on the City of Malabon and how we became a town. “Malabon, despite its uniqueness as a place and as a city, has to reclaim its place in Philippine history. Compared to its neighbors such as Manila, Caloocan, Cavite or Bulacan which are famous for historical events such as promulgating Philippine independence, hometowns of heroes and great artists, or a place rich with culture and traditions, little has been written about Malabon. But the 407-year-old town, enjoying its fourth year as a city, is continually sharing with the people its rich and colorful heritage in silence. In fact the only noise it has been creating for years is the fact that it’s a place that usually gets flooded when high tide sets in.” (Valencia, 2005)

The town of Malabon is basically a coastal town situated in the northern part of Metro Manila. Malabon, together with Navotas, Valenzuela, Pateros, Taguig, Pasig, and Muntinlupa, form the Metro Manila outer ring of towns, with the city of Manila as the center. The city is bounded on the north and northeast by Valenzuela City, on the west and southwest by Navotas and the east and southeast by Caloocan City. East portions of Malabon lie on the Guadalupe Plateau Zone. It occupies a total land area of 23.4 square kilometers.
Malabon was a swampy mass of land, tributaries flowing across adjoining villages, fishponds teeming with a variety of aquatic species. Now the marshland is no more, the river still runs, the ponds still feed. Host now to a number of factories, business establishments and recreational facilities, the land continues to provide for its people. Exposed to different culture on its every single boundary it has acquired a number of cultural and artistic similarities that is prominent in the nearby towns.

The geographical position of Malabon has allowed it to be the meeting point of different culture, customs and traditions. How the town became a town is traced more than 400 years ago….

More pictures can be seen here: Malabon, Isang sulyap sa aking bayan