I received a most welcome e-mail recently. It had nothing to do with current events or the state of the nation. Or did it?
First it was the jai alai aficionados who cried foul after the sport was first banned in the Philippines in 1986 amid allegations of game-fixing. With the game gone, the building was foreseen to be the next casualty.
Not since the Jai Alai Building was bulldozed in 2000 has a demolition in Manila gotten as much attention. Just like the Jai Alai Building, the Meralco Head Office along San Marcelino is one of the finest Art Deco buildings ever built in the country.
Good intentions mark the passage of the National Cultural Heritage Act of 2009, but legal fester points abound. With not...
