Our Oasis

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.