It was a sign of paths crossing between past and present.
As the second Saturday Market at Escolta’s historic First United Building proceeded amidst the summer heat, a music player in one of the booths played Up Dharma Down’s “Parks” from its late 2012 album. There were recent novels and other works of literature being sold in one booth, while another carried the souvenir program from the dedication of the Manila Cathedral across the river, back in 1958.
The monthly event, organized by the 98B Community, a collective founded by, among others, visual artist Mark Salvatus. (The name refers to his apartment/studio in Cubao where the group held its first activities.) “We were shown the space by the owners of the building,” Salvatus told Coconuts Manila.
The space was where Berg’s Department Store was located for nearly five decades. Later, a home improvement store called Ideal Homes was housed in the space. “We thought of doing something that highlighted the building’s past,” he said.
The market is related to another activity that 98B periodically holds, the Future Market, which features work being sold by contemporary up-and-coming artists. However, unlike the former, it is second-hand stuff that is on sale.
This time, 28 booths offered everything from used clothes to compact discs, and from comic books to bicycles. “Sometimes we don’t get the same [vendors] every month,” Salvatus said, “and that adds to the variety.”
One booth featured a large selection of books from a bookworm’s library; customers who bought a thousand pesos’ worth of books would get a plant. Salvatus said that the most interesting vendor for him at this staging of the Saturday Market was a vendor who sold 1980s pin-up posters. I noticed that it enjoyed some brisk business.
One of the original ideas for using the space, Salvatus told me, was to use it for art exhibitions. This second staging of the Saturday Market featured an art installation by Ling Quisumbing Ranilo’s MFA students at the University of the Philippines College of Fine Arts. The work proved to be a hit with visitors. Throughout the afternoon, people were perusing the exhibition.
If stylized postcards featuring photos of old Escolta was one’s thing, the Heritage Conservation Society’s youth wing was there not only to sell those postcards but also offer a most useful thing for history buffs—a map of the Escolta area, highlighting buildings that no longer existed.
The youth group, with students from different Metro Manila universities represented that afternoon, was offering a free tour of Escolta later in the day. The same group also offers periodic tours of the historic district, which is now the target of a concerted effort by local businesses, building owners, and other interested parties to revive the now-decrepit business center.
“Escolta was the Ayala [Avenue] of its time,” Salvatus said.
Marika Constantino, who handles the “business side” of the 98B collective, told Coconuts Manila that the Saturday Market is part of the group’s wider “Hola Escolta!” initiative.
“[Our projects] will assist in reviving activity, creating character and instilling a renewed historical interest in the area,” she said, “[and these] will also touch on past and present narratives (both personal and historical) of the community.” Other projects in this series have yet to be announced, but Constantino added that these would be in line with the organization’s thrust of building collaboration and community.
“For us the more important thing is for visitors, even if they won’t buy anything in the market, to take home a bit of history from the buildings of Escolta,” Constantino said.
The next Saturday Market at Escolta is scheduled for the last weekend of May, and Salvatus said that the Future Market, once staged in Cubao and the UP BLISS apartment blocks, could find a new home at First United, where 98B’s headquarters is located.
The building, designed by Andres Luna de San Pedro, is turning 85 this year, after being opened in 1938 as the Perez Samanillo Building. While many of its neighbors from an earlier age have either disappeared or fallen into disrepair, the building is still in living use.
Its continued life may be a harbinger of things to come for Escolta itself.
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Ren Aguila writes about art and culture for Coconuts Manila and other publications.
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