by Cecile C.A. Balgos

JUST WHEN one thought this country was already overrun with malls, it now turns out that the developers of these giant shopping centers have barely rolled up their sleeves. Shoe storeowner-turned-mall developer SM plans to build two new ones per year within a decade. Philippine Retailers Association president Roberto Claudio also says that aside from SM's contribution, 45 more malls are scheduled to be built during the same period. That's not counting the 100 or so strip malls that businessman Antonio 'Tonyboy' Cojuangco is reportedly planning to put up in several provinces across the country. That is, if and when he finds a partner for the venture. But considering the current mall mania, that shouldn't be too difficult for Cojuangco to pull off.

It really is no surprise that malls have been a big hit in the Philippines, whose citizens' addiction to shopping is well known even to merchants abroad. Indeed, while the economy remains in a slump, Filipinos are still shopping — and how. According to official statistics, personal consumption expenditures grew to P778 billion last year, posting an annual growth rate of four percent. A considerable chunk of that amount was most probably spent in the malls, of which the bigger ones attract, on average, hundreds of thousands of people each day.

Malls, however, are no longer just single-roofed groupings of purveyors of an assortment of goods. In many towns and cities in the United States and Canada, they have become the "new downtowns," where not only commercial activities take place, but social and sometimes political ones as well. In the fragmented metropolis that is Metro Manila, where there is a high concentration of them, malls are acknowledged as the "new plazas," replacing the traditional social center of a Philippine town.

There is not one municipality or city in Metro Manila that does not have at least one mall. Most have several. This has led to malls trying to outdo each other in terms of the variety of services they offer, so much so that aside from shopping, eating, and watching movies, one can now also hear Mass in a mall or go to computer school, learn judo, practice Thai kick boxing, play bingo, go bowling, and ride a carousel. In a few of the major malls, one could even have a full body massage (Swedish, Shiatsu, Thai, or Balinese), get a root canal, have a troublesome cough checked out at a medical clinic, or undergo a liposuction.

The list of goods and services available in the malls is always changing and growing. Where before there were only supermarkets, clothes and shoe shops, bookstores, and the requisite department store or two, now there are also hardware centers, an array of furniture stores, and art galleries. There are banks and mail stations. One could also book a cruise to Corregidor or a tour of the Greek islands, buy a house and lot, get a health or life insurance policy, perhaps even a memorial plan complete with a family-size cemetery plot.

To the average Metro Manilan living an increasingly 24/7 life, this could not have been a more pleasing development. Now he could save both time and sanity in a one-stop shop that also lets him escape the oppressive heat of the city. As a result, outside of the office and the home, a Metro Manilan (or any Filipino urbanite for that matter) spends most of his time in the mall — along with friends and family. Malling may be a global phenomenon, but chances are no country other than the Philippines has malls that are full of people even on weekdays. To many Filipinos, the mall is the ultimate tambayan ng bayan, the glorified sari-sari store that has something for everyone, including those who only want to watch the world go by, the best destination for a people with a penchant for going out in packs.

ANOTHER REASON for the popularity of malls in this country, however, is the dearth of public spaces. Some have argued that malls killed the traditional plazas, but even before SM's Henry Sy Sr. began to tire of being just a tenant of the Ayalas and plotted to build his first mall in the early 1980s — starting a trend that has yet to end — most of the plazas had been long gone, at least in Metro Manila, where the few that were left soon succumbed to the effects of official neglect as well as increasing urban density. Today the country's premier metropolis has only a handful of parks, a couple of zoos (one of them privately owned), a sprinkling of museums, and one or two revitalized plazas. While each one of these is worth a visit now and then, their rather static attractions do not come close to the cornucopia of offerings at the malls, where one is sure to find something new to see or do every time.

In recent years, too, the growing meanness of the streets has driven even more people into the malls. After all, in a city where there are no walkable sidewalks but an abundance of wayward drivers, to be a pedestrian is to be potential roadkill. And as the streets became more associated with crimes like bag-snatchings and kidnappings, the malls with their small private armies of security guards are seen as safer alternatives.

Even after the malls began experiencing ATM holdups (where the victims were led to ATMs to withdraw cash) and kidnappings, people refused to go back to the streets and their often-absent police, choosing to cast their lot with malls and their private guards (even when some of these turned out to be as inept as the regular cops). It was only after the year 2000 bombings of two major Metro Manila malls, allegedly by terrorists, that people were finally convinced, not to revisit the streets, but to stay home. One bomb hidden in a trashcan had killed a janitor in one shopping center's cineplex, while a few passersby were injured by a minor bomb blast in the other's gaming arcade. After several days, however, the crowds were back at the malls, the Filipino's kati ng paa, that itch to go out, apparently proving too powerful to ignore. That, and the strong pull of the malls. Says one chain store executive: "The fact that Filipinos spend so much time — and money — in malls is only an indication of how well the malls have done their job."