MANILA, Philippines—“Everybody has been enticing me to transfer to the exclusive villages (outside Manila). I don’t want to,” said Teresita C. Sison, a lawyer.

Sison has called an imposing white house at the corner of Taft Avenue and Remedios Streets in Malate, Manila, her home for the past 57 years.

“For one thing, if I were to transfer, I will not be able to afford the maintenance costs,” Sison told the Philippine Daily Inquirer. “And it’s so easy to get a ride to anywhere. I take a PUJ (public utility jeepney) to Divisoria. I used to do this every Monday when the fare was less than P1. I could even take a taxi cab to go to a party, when it was pretty safe to be out. Even today, at the age of 82, I don’t think of the pollution and the other hazards of living in the big city.”

Her house sits on a 750-sq m compound, its white walls covered with ivy. The structure was rebuilt in 1948 after it was razed by a fire during the war.

Despite its age, the roof has not leaked from the day Sison moved in; she attributed this to the quality of construction materials in the old days.

Although nothing much has changed in the house, the same can’t be said of its surroundings.

For instance, she recalled an impressive row of acacia trees on Taft Avenue, until these were felled by strong winds during a typhoon.

“When I first came here, we could leave the driveway open during the daytime,” she recalled. “We can’t do that anymore. There was no traffic then on the entire length of Taft Avenue,” she added, referring to the road that is now one of the busiest thoroughfares in Manila.

Still, Sison and her family refused to move elsewhere.

“Manila has a drawing force,” she explained. “And then there is, of course, Manila Bay where we can take in drafts of cool air. You cannot find this attraction anywhere else in the Metro. When my four children were still growing up, I would bring them to the boulevard close to the house. They were enrolled at St. Scholastica’s, La Salle and Letran.”

Another reason for Sison’s attachment to the house, where her children and grandchildren still live, is its historical importance. In front of the white house is a marker installed by the National Historical Institute in 2000.

According to the marker, the house was the residence of the country’s first woman physician, Honoria Acosta-Sison. Honoria was married to Dr. Antonio G. Sison, a former president of the University of the Philippines, director of the Philippine General Hospital (PGH) and dean of the UP College of Medicine. The couple are Sison’s parents-in-law.

Love and respect

“I felt I was living with institutions and I could feel the love and respect the people had for my in-laws,” she said.

Sison was born at PGH on Nov. 12, 1926. She went to Rizal High School, the biggest high school in the country, and went on to the University of the Philippines where she earned a law degree. In 1992, she was appointed to the Judicial Bar Council where she served for three terms or a total of 12 years. “I had the rank of a justice, but not the title,” she explained.

In 1991, she became the president of the Philippine Bar Association, the first woman to hold the post.

Described by friends and acquaintances as a happy person, she confessed that she is accustomed to living in a noisy atmosphere. “I look for the noise. Every Good Friday, I wish for the noise. Everything is too quiet.”

Can’t stand the quiet

In Pasig where she came from, she remembered the noise of the tranvia (street car) as it passed in front of their house, causing it to vibrate. “Today, I have the LRT in front of the house which I don’t mind at all!” she said. “I am just a person who cannot stand the quiet. Gusto ko laging masaya (I always want to be happy!)”

This also explains why, in her younger years, during Christmas Eve, she would go to Escola, then Manila’s premier shopping destination, just to soak in the ambience and the gaiety the place exuded.

“I still feel lucky living in this house,” Sison said. “I have really gotten attached to our place here in Manila and in spite of the overpopulation and pollution, I don’t think I will ever leave this city of my affections.”