By: Lala Rimando
First published: 20 July 04, TODAY

In a wealthy suburb of Manila and close to a Catholic chapel, an air-conditioned mosque will rise before the end of the year and become part of the landscape of the Greenhills Shopping Complex.

It will be the first mosque in Metro Manila within a mall.

More importantly, it is a testimony that in suburban Greenhills, Muslims are not only welcome, they are also nurtured.

Malls, in general, have been responsive to the spiritual needs of shoppers. Chapels, prayer rooms, or areas to hold Mass and other ceremonies for the predominantly Catholic customers are already fixtures in most malls.

Greenhills recently built a chapel to house 250 worshippers during its daily noontime Mass.

The move to build the 5-million peso ($150,000) mosque is unprecedented as Muslims are a minority in Metro Manila.

But the Ortigas family, which owns and operates the over-30-year-old mall, knows what it is doing.

Fourteen years ago, the Ortigases, who are into property development, made a decision that other businessmen considered foolish: They welcomed Muslim merchants into their malls.

At that time, other mall owners shied away from Muslim merchants mostly because of the stereotypes attached to them.

In 1990, a first batch of about 20 Muslims, mostly Maranaos from Lanao del Sur in Mindanao, started peddling pearls to joggers who ran along the peripheries of the five contiguous malls in Greenhills.

Thereafter, the management introduced the tiangge (bazaar) concept in their malls. When they invited the Muslim peddlers to join, the rags-to-riches story of this first batch of merchants began.

They have come a long way from being struggling peddlers. Now, they are cruising around in fancy cars, sending their children and grandchildren to exclusive schools, or touring the globe in search of items to sell at their stalls.

"They are traders by nature," explained Mr Rex Drilon, chief operating officer of Ortigas & Co, which owns and operates the shopping centre. He attributed their success to characteristics similar to those of the Chinese merchants: Patience and contentment with small yields.

These merchants dominate the sections on cell phones, furniture,and general merchandise, especially rubber shoes.

Mr Drilon said sales of cell phones in Greenhills account for 40 per cent of the nationwide sales of these items.

But it is in the pearl business that Greenhills plays a dominant role. Mr Drilon said pearls sold in Greenhills account for as much as 90 per cent of the total sales of pearls in the country; attracting clients like Mrs Imelda Marcos and Queen Sophia of Spain.

There are about 500 Muslims, or 25 per cent of the estimated 2,000 registered stall tenants in Greenhills. But they seem to be much more. Ms Lotta Soller, leasing manager, says this is because a Muslim stall is usually handled by as many as 10 people, unlike other stalls that have at most three.

Apparently among the Muslims, especially among the Maranaos, to be in Greenhills is a statement that they have made it to the big league.

At first, other merchants and some shoppers were resistant to the Muslims' presence in Greenhills. There were unsure how the Muslims would behave.

Mr Drilon said the complaints were directed mostly at newcomers who were still adjusting to city life. Eventually, the complaints died down.

The Greenhills management encouraged the first-generation Muslim merchants to attend seminars conducted by different government agencies on the basic requirements of mainstream businesses, such as computing and paying taxes and applying for permits.

The management remits to the San Juan municipal government the merchants' permit fees totalling at least 500,000 pesos a month.

It was a long getting-to-know-you period between the Ortigases and the merchants. At the heart of their relationship is the resolve not to discriminate against the Muslims. It has been mutually profitable.

Proceeds from the Muslim merchants account for as much as 30 to 40 per cent of the Greenhills malls' total revenues.

Now that they have proven their business acumen and overcome the stereotypes attached to them, other mall operators are trying to draw Muslim retailers into their buildings.

If the move succeeds, it will do more than what the government has been trying, not quite successfully, to do - finding a way to build bridges to the Muslims of Mindanao, the troubled southern area of the Philippines where secessionist violence has raged for decades.

Lala Rimando is a staff writer of Newsbreak magazine in Manila.