I grew up as a teen-ager in San Pedro, Laguna. The town of San Pedro is actually a first-class municipality in the province of Laguna, Philippines. The town has hospitals, clinics, colleges, cathedrals, subdivisions, factories, super markets, and exclusive villages. It is Laguna’s gateway to Metro Manila. San Pedro is just a neighboring town of Muntinlupa City which is the southernmost part of Metro Manila. Despite being one of the smallest towns in the entire province, with a total land surface area of only 24.05 km², San Pedro has the highest population density in Laguna.

When “super malls” became popular in the 1990s here in the Philippines, I thought a mall would be established in San Pedro, Laguna. But no mall came around during that time in any part of the said town. Up to this time, San Pedro Town doesn’t have any mall in spite the fact that it’s the nearest part of Laguna to Metro Manila. In fact, San Pedro is about to become part of Metro Manila by 2016. It’s hard to imagine that a highly-urbanized place like San Pedro Town doesn’t have any mall up to the present time.  Neighboring Muntinlupa City has about 3 super malls and 2 mini-malls. Binan City, another neighboring town of San Pedro in Laguna, has about one mini-mall and one super mall. Residents in San Pedro, Laguna are still dreaming of the day when a mall will be established in their “first-class municipality.”  The town also doesn’t have movie theaters.

The pictures in this iReport show a place where there was once a huge factory of soft drinks and other beverages. The said factory has been in San Pedro, Laguna for about 5 decades now when it was demolished last July of this year. The soft-drink plant was completely demolished this month of August , and now only fences, grasses, trailers, trees, and bulldozers are highly-visible in the place where there was once a busy factory. The area where there was once a soft-drink factory can accommodate about 2 malls in San Pedro, Laguna. I think the total land area of the place is about 3,000 to 6,500 square meters. The place was once very active with trucks delivering soft drinks and other beverages to several places outside the town. There were so many workers in that site before the factory was demolished. The owners aren’t yet sure of what to do with the site. I wish that a ‘super mall’ can take the place of the demolished soft-drink factory in San Pedro, Laguna. That would be nice because residents of San Pedro, Laguna wouldn’t have to leave their town in order to go to a mall where they can relax, buy items, and unwind. I hope such a wish would come true!