ARROCEROS PARK
A . Antonio Villegas St, Ermita, Manila
The 2.1-ha Arroceros Forest Park has been dubbed as the city’s “last lung,” one of the few patches of greenery in a polluted city.
The park—which used to be a part of the Parian, the settlement for Chinese merchants—got its name from portion of the Pasig riverbank, where merchants from various provinces would unload rice grains for redistribution. The area was named Parian de Arroceros after arroz, the Spanish word for rice.
The small forest, home to over 1,300 trees, was started more than two decades ago by Winner Foundation, the park’s caretaker since November 1993. It was closed down in 2003, to give way to an education office and a teacher’s dormitory, thus sparking a lawsuit. In 2007, under the administration of former Manila Mayor Alfredo Lim, the park was returned to the public.
Last year, the park faced another demolition threat when then Mayor Joseph Estrada announced his plan to build the University of Manila’s school gymnasium inside the park.
Unveiling a masterplan for Arroceros Park on July 30, newly-installed Mayor Francisco “Isko Moreno” Domagoso vowed that “no more buildings will be built in Arroceros.”