Recently, I was tasked to run some errands in this area and while I'm no stranger to Calamba, i find the area....bemusing to say the least.

This public market appears to be what was then the historic marketplace of the area from the looks of it as it follows the "old town lines" or so it would seem.

The local businesses that surround it as I've observed, follows an older style that only appears to exist on really old, rural towns that goes like: "business at bottom, residence at the top" that's becoming increasingly rare in some places in the country.

Back to the Mercado, going from what I've seen, the place has high vacancy rates and some of the areas surrounding it appear to have been shuttered leaving impressions of the place looking like as though it were economically depressed (although I've heard word on the street that the place caught fire some time ago and while the place had been rebuilt, some of the tenants have yet to return.)

Nevertheless, I want to remain hopeful. I mean, there is work being done with the place by the City Government especially with the fairly recent introduction of the Paleng-QR digital initiative as well as some guarantee of promotion of the area, maybe it might just stand a chance in a time where private corporations are creeping in to take every public spaces we have left here.

^{to be concluded}