Every time I walk into Serendra from the hustle and bustle
of the outside world, it’s like entering a calm ocean of serenity. The noise of commerce and cars switches into
a hush of leaves rustling in the wind and it’s like landing on a different
planet. At night, my four year old son
goes out with his headlamp to hunt for slugs, snails, centipedes and other
insects. My husband has caught
dragonflies and grasshoppers for him. We
go stargazing on the lounge beds by the Palm pool. Although the night sky is not as clear as the
countryside’s, it’s still an awesome experience feeling like you’re in a resort
in the middle of Manila.
During the day, the paths that curve through the lush
tropical garden escort us out to where we need to go. The trellis of dangling white flowers never
fails to amaze me no matter how many times I’ve strolled underneath, thankful
for whoever designed and built this structure.
There’s space for all ages to enjoy – kids playing football on the
grass, babies squealing with delight at the bright orange koi in the pond, people
meeting in casual lobbies.
There’s a constant stream of improvements and upgrading
going on like there’s an army taking care to ensure the plants and trees stay
healthy and facilities well-maintained.
Simply put, living here makes me feel like one lucky soul in a paradise
setting. Too lucky in fact, that I’m
sometimes bothered by it, wondering if Metro Manila can ever be “Serendrified.” Isn’t that a mad, ludicrous, impossible
dream? Imagine the city with a network
of parks, gardens and mini-forests. It’s
like people wishing we can be like Singapore knowing fully well that we can
never be because we can’t get our act together. From this perspective, it may
look bleak for our city.
Fort Bonifacio is already one of the few hyper sanitized,
stylized, secured areas in a city famously described as a gateway to hell. We don’t have enough parks and greenery. Our sidewalks are too narrow and public
spaces ill-maintained. There is no
affordable housing so squatters have little choice over where they reside. Public transportation is a nightmare and
urban planning is non-existent. All
developers care about is profit, never mind the environment. What’s sensible and logical is thrown out the
window. Moving within the confines of
Fort Bonifacio, especially Serendra, one can forget these inconvenient truths
of living in Manila. If one came home to
an oasis, whose problem is it anyway?
There are attempts to bring beauty and greenery into the
city like those plant and art walls along EDSA but one wishes for more than
token efforts. One wishes action on a
scale so massive, so extensive that it’ll give everyone access to a “Serendra”
in their neighbourhood – for free! But
nothing is for free especially Serendra which comes at a price. However, the economics and sustainability of
better and greener public spaces is something that should be worked out perhaps
by a group of people in each community.
If there’s no such person or group, then people get the environment they
work for and deserve. Perhaps the best
we can hope for are pockets of best practices that can multiply by contaminating others.
