The UP community, students, professors, alumni, residents were saddened by the news of UP shopping center being razed by fire. According to the Philippine Collegian, the fire started at around 7:15 AM and has been put control at around 7 AM.
The UP Shopping Center was more than just a “shopping center” for the UP community. Although you might not see it as a shopping mall like SM or UP Town Center, it was more than that to us and it had all that we needed.
For the UP Students and UP Professors
In the life of a UP student, the UP Shopping Center (SC) was the go to place whenever you need something. If it was your first day in class and you need a 1×1 photo, you’d go to UP Shopping Center. When you need to photocopy your readings, print your homeworks or papers, you’d go to UP Shopping Center. If you do not have internet and need to finish an assignment, you’d go to the computer shops in SC. If you need to buy school supplies, bluebooks, pens and notebooks, you’d go to UP Shopping Center. I remember when I was in elementary or high school, whenever the teacher asks us to bring something tomorrow, we do not go to SM, we go to shopping center! If you need school uniforms, especially for the UPIS elementary and high school students, you’d go to UP Shopping Center. It was always there for us.
For the UP professors, it was there in the UP shopping center where they’d leave their readings for us students to photocopy. They would photocopy their exams there. For those part of organizations, they would print their publication materials such as posters in the various printing stalls of SC.
If you’re hungry you can go to UP SC to eat in Rodic’s, the popular tapsilog place, or Mashita, the Japanese restaurant in UP, and it would cost you only 50-150 pesos. One of our favorites in SC is the fruit shake and fruit stall.
UP shopping center is there for graduating students to print and bind their thesis even for just a day. Most UP students would cram their thesis and even when they’re already near the deadline, UP shopping center stalls could print and bind your thesis for you. Many of us are so grateful with this feature. Most of us graduated, thanks to UP shopping center.
At the end of the life as a UP student, we still go back to the UP shopping center to buy our own sablay. The sablay is part of the graduation attire and it is very significant to us as a UP student.
For the families and UP residents
UP SC is not only for the UP students and professors but also for the families and residents living in UP. We usually go to church every Sunday at the UP Parish. After mass, we’d go to UP shopping center to grab a fruit shake.
Other than things for students, UP shopping center also had the essential needs of the UP community. If your bag or shoes got damaged, you can go to SC for repair. If you need a barber’s cut or a haircut or new hairstyle for girls, UP SC has it. I’ve tried other salons by the way, but the one in UP SC was still my favorite. If you need to buy fruits and essential cooking needs, UP SC has it. If you’re looking for old books, UP SC has it. It was really there for us, the students, the professors, the residents and the whole UP community. Even as an alumni, I always find myself coming back to UP shopping center for my needs.
For the UP Shopping Center Workers
It was reported that around 500,000 worth of damage were lost due to the fire. As UP shopping center has a lot of stalls, it also had a lot of workers that were stripped off of their source of income due to the fire. Workers were seen to be in tears when the UP shopping center caught fire. Add to this are the investments of the small scale business owners such as their photocopy machines, computers, and more.
Negative Comments
The UP shopping center fire caught negative response from other people. Some people calling the fire as “karma” for opposing the current administration. Others may say “buti nga” and some people even say “sana lahat kayo nasunog”. These comments received disgust from the UP community. I mean, how can you? How can you say that’s karma and say “buti nga”? UP shopping center is part of our lives. More importantly, the fire removed a source of income from most of the workers inside.
What’s next for UP Shopping Center and the UP Community
As the fire is still new, there is still no news about the restoration of the UP Shopping Center. However, the UP Student Regent and some members of the UP Community is now calling for donations for the UP shopping center. Our wish in the UP community is that UP shopping center will not be commercialized and will still provide jobs and source of income for small scale businesses.
Also, some establishments are taking this opportunity for promotions such as Big B giving free photocopying services in UP Town Center.
We hope that UP Shopping Center be restored again. In the span of 3 years, a lot of UP Diliman buildings had been caught by fire such as UP Alumni Center, UP Faculty Center, CASAA, and now shopping center. UP Alumni Center is already restored, although I’m not sure if it’s open again to the public. We hope UP Diliman will be able to restore UP shopping center and the lost jobs of the workers in the area.
The Broadway Queen 
Damn…that was truly unfortunate. Visited the Rodic’s branch there with high school friends after Summer Komikon 2009, bought the shakes there after the usual Academic Oval jog, and had my chapbook thesis printed at one of the shops. 😦
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The stall owners were really worrying about the thesis and papers of the students. Most of it was burned by the fire. 😦
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Indeed! I just hope the professors give some leeway with regards to those.
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