Binondo: Bastion of Chinese merchants in RP

FOR about four hundred years, Binondo,

Manila, was the country's premier

business district.

Binondo, after the Tagalog word

binunduk, meaning hilly terrain, is a

1.5-kilometer-long islet surrounded by

streams.

Its location is believed to have

played a major part in the Chinese

businessmen's decision to establish

their activities in Binondo and,

eventually, permanently settle in the

area.

The islet is viewed as a ''golden

triangle'' or a ''golden dragon's den,''

which is believed to bring prosperity

and good fortune in line with the

ancient Chinese art of feng shui.

In the 1600s, many Chinese merchants settled in Manila

dominating the traffic of goods from China and India to the

Philippines. They performed a variety of business functions:

financing, warehousing, customs brokering, insurance and

domestic production.

These merchants became a powerful, elite, but low-key force

that later settled permanently in Binondo and dominated

commercial activities in the area.

Foreign merchants' hub

Binondo, at that time, was a preferred site not only of the

Chinese but also of Spanish and other foreign businessmen.

These businessmen opted to stay in Binondo because they

want to be as near as possible to their warehouses and factories

which were situated along the (Pasig) river, the major artery

used for commerce.

''All is movement, all is life,'' said Frenchman Gireoniere in

describing the mercantile town of Binondo in 1820. He said

Binondo was ''where reside the rich merchants--Spanish,

English, Indian, Christianized Chinese and Mestizo, in the most

elegant houses built upon the banks of Pasig.''

The tiny islet, however, was not just the center of trade and

commerce, it was also the site of the last of the genocidal

bloodbaths the Spaniards waged against the Chinese or

Sangley (a word believed to come from xiang lei, meaning

traveling merchants in Chinese).

From the time the Spanish first came to colonize the Philippines

until the time Lim Ah Hong, a Chinese pirate, invaded the

country in 1574, the Chinese were allowed to settle anywhere.

The Chinese population grew dramatically from 150 in 1571 to

30,000 in 1603. The growth in the Chinese population threatened

to overwhelm the smaller population of Spanish peninsulares

prompting the ruling Spaniards to periodically implement

programs aimed at reducing the size of the Chinese population

here.

Thrown out

In 1581, the Spaniards rounded up the Chinese and even

Japanese, Indian and Malay merchants in Intramuros and forced

them to set up their shops and stores to a site close to

residential areas. The site was later known as the Parian. After

several years, however, this grouping of merchants was

transferred nine times to various locations.

Binondo was an offshoot of the Parian. It was where an elite

group of Chinese merchants lived. The difference between the

two, however, was that Binondo was known more as a

wholesale commercial center while the Parian was more into the

retail business.

Politics was also very active in Binondo. A self-governing

neighborhood association called Gremio de Sangleyes,

established in 1687, supervised the Chinese community. It had

its own town hall, jail and a set of local officials. The Spanish

encouraged this system. The Indio residents of Binondo

followed suit and formed what they called Gremio while the

Chinese mestizos broke away and formed their own association.

Economic, political clout

Binondo also used to be the country's central financial district.

Deogracias Vistan, president of Solidbank Corp., recalled that

Binondo was the financial center in the late 1960s to the early

1970s when he was still working there as a trainee. All the big

foreign banks--HSBC, Bank of America, Standard

Chartered--and established local banks had their head offices

there or nearby Binondo. Among the biggest local banks

headquartered in the area were Philippine National Bank,

Philippine Bank of Communications and China Banking Corp.

Binondo was also the location of the old Manila Stock Exchange

and a hub for stockbrokers, who can be found often in their

favorite watering hole, the Traders Cafi.

Before the 1950s, the stretch of Juan Luna Street housed the

headquarters of most large corporations in the Philippines,

including oil companies. It was also in Binondo where the

department store trend started in the country.

Calle Rosario, now called Quintin Paredes after a respected

senator and lawyer, was also once the haven of quality textile

and imported goods.

Binondo remained the base of several wealthy and influential

Chinese businessmen to this day. It still holds certain degree of

economic and political clout although the rise of modern

commercial districts (such as Makati and Ortigas) and Manila's

infrastructure problems have diminished this influence.

While Binondo's importance as a financial hub has waned, the

municipality's proximity to the ports and the still substantial

presence of Chinese traders made it remain active district with

its narrow streets lined with Chinese restaurants, shops and

banks.