Project Title & Location
DAPITAN: RIZAL'S PLACE OF EXILE
Dapitan, Zamboanga del Norte

Client
PHILIPPINE CENTENNIAL COMMISSION
Pasig City

Project Completion
1997

Associated Firms
PROS A&E
ECT Consulting Engineers
Erlinde M. Mendoza, SE
Cesar Tadeo, PEE
Felix Peronilla, LA
Tao Management Corporation

Services Provided
- Feasibility Study
- Location Analysis
- Landscape Architecture
- A&E Services
- Project Inventory

Dapitan, idyllic place for Jose P. Rizal. It is also his place of exile. Dapitan is the national hero's concept of how to live in peace, raise a family, set up a business and practice his diversified disciplines. His four years (1893-1897) in the place ensures Dapitan as a Shrine City.

As one of several national trunk sites of the Centennial Freedom Trail, the setting enhances the historical traces of his work during his sojourn at Dapitan. Two general sites provide this prominence in the place: first is the plaza of Dapitan, and at his Hacienda Talisay, which he purchased.

Sta. Cruz landing, the place along the bay where he landed, is to be linked to the Dapitan Plaza along a pedestrian avenue. The plaza, well-maintained as it is now, boasts of a relief map of Mindanao which Rizal built to help visualize the island for his students in geography. The house of the Spanish Military Governor, the Casa Real, is proposed to be restored and made the city museum and tourism office. It is in Casa Real that Rizal stayed in the early days of his exile. The development of the Dapitan Bay Boulevard as a main tourist way is still awaiting enactment of local measures to set aside additional land for scenic development. It is also expected that the Dapitan-Talisay Bridge will also be improved.

The development of Talisay, the place where Rizal lived and established his school and eye clinic is being converted into an outdoor museum with a much improved minimalist structure for the Filipiniana. Interpretive exhibits link various spots in the estate that form an elevated circuit recounting joyous moments in his hacienda.

To enhance the historic plaza, Fort Ilihan by the hill, is to be upgraded. This is the best site to view Dapitan as a Shrine City.