Manila is a job for Superman

Manila is literally a decaying city that has clearly seen happier days. It is dirty, chaotic and even dangerous… just like the other cities that comprise what we now know as Metro Manila. No wonder it became the visual inspiration in a recent novel that called it the ‘Gates of Hell’.

Saving Manila… restoring its old splendor and economic preeminence is a job for Superman. And right after Erap was sworn into office, Manila’s new mayor said outright that he is no Superman. That’s how to manage expectations!

“‘Di po ako si Superman. ‘Di ko kayang solusyunan lahat. Hinihiling ko sa inyo, konting tiis, sakripisyo, pasensiya, malasakit,” he said.

“Aside from being the carnapping capital of the country, Manila has the biggest number of informal settlers, (it is the) highest in poverty incidence and unemployment rate among 36 cities,” Erap said, quoting a study made by the University of the Philippines and data from the Department of Interior and Local Government.

Point well taken. Indeed, even Superman will be daunted by the enormity of the challenge of bringing Manila back to its old glory. But I am sure people are ready to be led, to be inspired by a leader who honestly wants to do something to save the city from its continued downward spiral.

The generations that remember the glory days of the city will soon be gone and the younger generations of Manilans know nothing of the city that can evoke pride. Before Manilans think this squalor is how it had always been, Erap is Manila’s last chance to once again be the star city of the country… the Pearl of the Orient.

But for now, nothing but problems and hard work face Manila’s returning son as he assumes leadership at City Hall. Interestingly, it had been more than a decade after he was forced to leave Malacañang through the backdoor via the Pasig River. Cleaning up this river is one of the major concerns that now faces Erap as he settles down at City Hall.

And that’s precisely what Erap said he will do after he took his oath as Mayor. He said that he will prioritize cleaning up Manila’s notoriously clogged waterways and relocating communities located along riverbanks and other danger zones.

“We must learn our lesson from last year. We will start cleaning our waterways in line with the disaster risk reduction program,” he said. This will be a key test for Erap’s leadership. He may have to tangle with DILG Sec. Mar Roxas who, I am told, is a hindrance to cleaning the estero near Malacañang.

Cleaning up the waterways is a life and death issue for many residents in our calamity prone city. It is also a complex problem with serious political implications. No wonder past mayors allowed it to fester… that was more politically palatable than dealing with it.

Gina Lopez showed how it could be done. Former Mayor Fred Lim encouraged Gina to make the Paco Market estero a test case for cleaning up. But even the brave Mayor Lim allowed Gina to be the public face of the effort. Gina, after all, was not a politician who could be hurt by a political backlash.

What Gina did was not easy or simple, nor is it over. Indeed, the problems related to the clearing up of the Paco Market estero still need continuing attention to make it a long term success.

Getting the estero settlers out was the easy part. Putting them in a relocation center over a hundred kilometers from Manila in Calauan, Laguna is the hard part. It meant building a new community from scratch… complete with basic public facilities like schools and livelihood training and community centers.

 New houses had to be provided for the resettled estero dwellers and those houses must have the basic requirements of water and electricity. Most important of all is livelihood. That is the real challenge that Gina must meet every day or the work already done would unravel.

 So far, so good… Erap should visit the Bayanijuan community in Calauan and ask Gina to give him a briefing so he can see how this job of cleaning up the esteros should be done. The human element must be top priority. Unless this is addressed, the problem cannot be solved.

Erap is also launching his version of P-Noy’s Daang Matuwid. “The fight against corruption will be the centerpiece of my administration,” he said, echoing P-Noy.

“We will clean up our police force to see to it that they will be Manila’s finest, not Manila’s worst.” He warned the city’s corrupt policemen, the so-called “kotong cops” that “your days are numbered here in Manila. Tapos na ang maliligayang araw niyo…”

To get anything done, the new mayor needs resources. Erap pointed out that the city’s finances will be among his first concerns. The city has an approved budget of P9.2 billion for 2013, but he said collection for the first and second quarters amounted to only P2 billion.

The major problem, he said, is the city’s P3.5-billion debt, as reported by the Commission on Audit, including about P600 million in arrears to the Manila Electric Company. He has to improve collection of business and property taxes, but that also means he must make Manila more business friendly.

Erap promises to do just that. One of his first orders to the City Hall bureaucracy is to expedite the release of business permits and licenses. Erap is aware that an unfriendly bureaucracy at City Hall drove major businesses out of Manila to begin with. These businesses could have created the jobs and paid the taxes the city needs.

Erap should also take note of a promising trend in many foreign cities if he wants to increase the city’s property tax collection. This involves the redevelopment of a city’s decaying center. Developers in cities like Los Angeles and San Francisco have reclaimed crime-ridden ghettoes in city centers and transformed them into stylish residential and business hubs.

With the traffic situation being what it is, the high cost of gasoline and commuting becoming a physically exhausting daily struggle, many suburbanites welcome living right in the city where they work. With the proper incentives from City Hall, our aggressive local property developers can do that in Manila as well.

There was a time when the most expensive real estate was not in Makati but in Binondo. But that was because some in the local Chinese community want to live close to each other. This can be used to encourage a rebirth of the old Chinatown business district in a way that preserves its heritage nature.

A sure and quick way for Erap to signal the rebirth of the city is through tourism. I suggest Erap meets right away with Sec. Mon Jimenez and work together on reviving Intramuros. I know Sec. Mon had been dying to do this but has encountered numerous problems which, I believe, Erap can help resolve.

One major problem is how to deal with the so called squatters within the walled city. But many are not really squatters but are renting from private owners of property there. Some are indeed squatters and I was told that Gawad Kalinga is trying to help them relocate to Cavite.

The Intramuros Administration has a master plan for the development of Intramuros. Erap can help by using his moral suasion over the settlers and the small land owners to work with government to remake Intramuros to something like an open air museum of our Spanish cultural heritage. Maybe the small land owners can be given a profit incentive by making them partners in the redeveloped Intramuros.

Standards for constructing anything within the walled city must be prescribed and strictly enforced according to the master plan. It should be easy to entice some of our top property developers to work on Intramuros once government clears out the legal problems.

There is still so much a native Manilan can and should be proud of the city. But for us to be proud of our city again, its decay must be arrested. Erap summarized his mission well: “…isaayos at ibalik ang ganda at sigla ng Lungsod ng Maynila.”

Erap may not be Superman but he has no choice. He needs to be as close to a Superman as his 76-year old body can take him. And we wish him well for our city’s sake.

Lap top

Here is a recycled Erap joke in honor of his first day as Mayor. Brush up on your Erap jokes… fashionable again!

City Hall secretary: Sir, puwede bang palitan ‘tong laptop ko?

Erap: Bakit?

Secretary: Masyadong mabigat, eh!

Erap: Ba’t di ka mag-delete ng files para gumaan?

Boo Chanco’s e-mail address is [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @boochanco