Rediscovering the Philippine Map (literally!)

Come May 20, get ready to see the Lazarus Magic in Rizal Park! That is, see the reborn of the iconic Relief Map of the Philippines from a very fresh and new perspective.

Many of you don’t know this yet. A huge section of Rizal Park in Manila is actually occupied by a pool-like feature that showcases the islands of the Philippines. From anybody’s eyeview, no one can actually see and appreciate this because the small view deck had been closed since the 90’s and was eventually torn down without replacing that cheapo structure (talk about priorities!). Its quite an irony, there was a huge map in the middle of the city that nobody could actually see! Both funny and sad.

But now, with an army of motivated gardeners and construction workers, the new director for Rizal Park (correct name of her office is – National Park Development Committee), Ms. Jett Villegas has been making lots of great improvements on the area and has transformed and brought it back to the people as a very, very significant social amenity for 16 million people. I know, its quite cryptic and probably only social scientists could understand what a social amenity is. But believe me, every decent civilization needs an open, green and well-landscaped space to help keep the happiness and sanity of its population.

Instead of rebuilding a viewdeck, a boardwalk is now constructed in the middle of the lagoon which should make people closer to the map and make them better appreciate the islands and the territories.

The map is located near the area of Agrifina Circle, where the old, American-style buildings of the Department of Tourism, the former office of the Department of Finance (which is now a museum), and the giant Lapu-lapu statue are located. For the oldies, the hero’s place used to be where the globe fountain was located. Its also in the Taft Ave. section of the Park,.

The launch will be at 7:00 A.M. of May 20 and another ceremony will be held in the afternoon of the same date.


Director Jett Villegas with her staff. Making sure that the relief map will be a proud feature of the park.