Revisiting the Old Nayong Pilipino

Our original intent was to test drive the new Honda driving facility in Sucat, Parañaque but ended up in the old Nayong Pilipino Complex that Sunday. Sa dami ng re-routing in Parañaque, we obviously took the wrong turn and ended up facing the facade of the old Nayong Pilipino that brought back old, childhood memories for my brothers and myself.

We have a relative that used to live close to the area and most of our weekends were spent biking, strolling and running in the 45-hectare leisure park. I learned how to ride a bike in Nayong Pilipino. My brother learned the history of the Cagsawa Church from my grandparents in Nayong Pilipino. Apart from the obvious trip to memory lane, the park was wide enough for practice driving so, we decided to proceed since it was no longer operating commercially in view of the opening of the new Nayong Pilipino theme park in Clark, Pampanga.

Nakakalungkot lang. It was not the same Nayong Pilipino we knew so much in our childhood days. The nipa huts in the Ifugao Province were gone. The area where they place the beautiful kulintangs inside the Maranao Village was empty with termites and moths slowly eating away the beams. The manicured vermuda grasses that used to align the walkways were replaced by wayward cogon grasses, indicating the obvious neglect of the place throughout the years.

When the guard told us that practice driving (much to the disappointment of my younger brother) is not allowed, we decided to do our usual pasttime instead: biking. I took my niece to a ride and toured her on the biking grounds. Although the overall ambience was changed with the presence of some homeless and street children that now enjoy the fringes of the theme park (open to the public), the ruins still provide an idyllic calm in the midst of the hustle and bustle of a crowded metropolis.

While my niece could not appreciate the replica of the majestic Mayon Volcano with candy wrappers littered along the wild cogon grasses at the foot of the 'volcano' in the old Nayong Pilipino, I had to remind her that this was not the real thing and that the Mayon Volcano in Albay has inspired many poets and epic stories, which some of them already made into children's books that I read to her in National Bookstores and Powerbooks. She nodded absently and hopped her way out of the bike to catch a butterfly. And, I was left thinking whether I should be glad I have seen better days of the old Nayong Pilipino.