When I was young, I always
thought that most parts of Metro Manila had pocket parks like Marikina. Later
on, I found out I was wrong. Sad to say, the stereotypical image of Metro
Manila as a dirty, urban sprawl with little or no green space is indeed true.
Marikina, on the other hand, has some characteristics that challenge the common
perception of Metro Manila – its public parks.
I cannot really describe the
history of how the city ensured the existence of pocket parks, but I think the
land usage of the city and the progressive stances of its previous mayor,
Bayani Fernando played a vital role. For those unfamiliar, Marikina is home to
many subdivisions – but not the exclusive, gated type with snobbish people
(hehe). Because of this, most areas have a designated public park, usually with
a basketball court. Marikina during the time of Fernando had a quasi-socialist
stance, promoting people-oriented infrastructure: sidewalks, bicycle lanes
(sadly many are now in disrepair), and parks. These parks were placed under the
city’s Parks Development Office – an office that continues to operate to this
day.
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| A newly-installed playground at the Liwasang Kalayaan (2021) |
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| The Roman garden, a portion of the Marikina River Park |
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| Liwasang Kalayaan in Marikina Heights, improved in 2019 |
While not a grand as other parks
both here and abroad, the Liwasang Kalayaan (literally “Freedom Park”) in
Marikina Heights one of the largest parks in the city. This is probably because
this area was the last to be developed, hence it did not experience rapid
urbanization unlike the barangays near the Marikina river.
Marikina also hosts many “pocket
parks”, pocket parks around 100 sq. meters, enough to have around 10-15 trees
and 4-5 benches as shown in the photo above.
Here are other pocket parks in
Marikina:
The last photo is actually a
newly-developed park that was once an old school building. It’s rare to see
buildings demolished to become a park. Usually, the reverse is more common: open
spaces “developed” into buildings.
Despite this, I believe the
entire metropolis needs more parks. These pocket parks are mere dots when
plotted on a map of NCR.
Government data shows that out of
NCR’s 55,922.22 hectares, only 21 percent (12,152.79 hectares) are considered “green
space” – quotation marks added since these green spaces include
privately-owned golf courses.
Thus, having pocket parks are a
godsend especially in the urban jungle of Metro Manila. I fervently hope more
LGUs make way for parks like these especially if we are to promote outdoor
activities (as they are safer) during the COVID-19 pandemic.
