Manila officials support business owners in tourist belt cleanup drive

MANILA, Philippines - Manila’s local executives have thrown their full support to the business owners in the Ermita-Malate area for a campaign that will clear this tourist belt of criminal elements, hookers, hawkers, squatters, street children, and garbage.

Representing Manila Mayor Alfredo Lim, deputy mayor Joey Silva led local officials and police authorities in vowing support for the campaign aimed at saving the tourist belt from urban decay and preventing its commercial enterprises from eventually leaving the area for safer alternatives.

Silva told the Ermita-Malate Business Owners Association (EMBOA) at a recent meeting that, in behalf of Lim, he would officially and personally lead a group of city executives from all sectors in addressing every problem plaguing the tourist belt.

The problems, according to EMBOA president Jeanette Macasieb, could be solved only through the collective and determined efforts of Manila’s business community and the local and national government agencies.

Macasieb urged all the other business owners in the tourist belt to join the EMBOA and contribute to the effort by monitoring the situation in their respective areas and reporting it immediately to the private-public core group formed by Silva to act promptly on the matter.

Constituting the core group led by Macasieb and Silva are officers and members of EMBOA and the heads of the various departments of the Manila city government, including Councilor Josie Siscar, executive assistant to the mayor and vice chairperson Gemma Cruz-Araneta of the Manila Historical and Heritage Commission, Superintendent Ferdinand Quirante of Station 5 (tourist belt), assistant director Romy de la Vega of the Manila Barangay Bureau, and engineer Alex Mohammad of the Metro Manila Development Authority, among others.

All of them vowed to work persistently to prevent the return of relocated squatters and reinstallation of road obstructions, clear the major thoroughfares of pedicabs, ban commercial sex workers, beggars and illegal vendors permanently, clean the streets of garbage and lawlessness, light up the entire area, strictly disallow double parking, and put order in the city.

“Those measures are the only way we can keep business thriving in Manila to provide employment to its residents and generate tax revenues to finance the city’s development activities. There is no other option. All of us must work together if we want ‘Manila reborn,’” Macasieb said, referring to EMBOA’s campaign battlecry.

Like Lim, Silva and other business owners in the city, Macasieb was born and raised in Manila, where she nurtured and expanded her City Garden chain of international standard hotels.

Macasieb is executive vice president of the City Garden Hotels Group, which includes the Lotus Garden Hotel and the City Garden Suites, both located along A. Mabini Street in Ermita, Manila.

“Before we can ever fully beautify this city, we need to clean it up first to set the stage for its integrated development and keep the patrons of its businesses. Thus, we assure our clients and customers of our untiring efforts to deserve their patronage. We are also inviting all other business owners to join us in this campaign. No one will do it for us. We, in Manila, just have to do it ourselves,” Macasieb said.