Why so many malls?

Foreign guests inevitably ask me why we have so many malls… and so large. Oh, I tell them, it is because it is rather warm in this country and the malls provide free air conditioning. We have the highest power rates in the region and 90 percent of our population can’t afford air conditioning.

Next question: Won’t parks with large old shade trees provide soothing relief from the tropical heat? I explain we used to have public plazas but as our urban centers grew, the government kept on selling public land to mall developers.

We lost a lot of land that used to be or could have been public parks. Even Manila Zoo may be sold by City Hall to a mall developer soon. Some developers pretended to put mini parks on the mall rooftops to simulate required open space. Then I add, I guess we are not a Central Park kind of people… we are mall goers.

How did we evolve to become mall rats? There was a time when the public plaza was the town center with the government munisipyo on one side and the church on the other.

Now the malls are where people congregate, specially on weekends with their families. Aside from restaurants and stores to exercise our consumer rights, malls now also house government offices we often have to transact business with.

For example, the other weekend, I finally heeded the two notices Comelec sent me to have my biometrics taken because they mishandled a whole batch of voter biometrics records. The notice said I should go to City Hall to have that done. My procrastination paid off because I ended up being able to do that in a mall near my house.

I am not sure I saved more time by going to the Eastwood Mall instead of City Hall. I am told there were fewer people in City Hall and there was quite a horde at the mall. It just goes to show that if you want to reach out to people these days, you should try doing that at the mall.

Come to think of it, when I renewed my passport, the DFA branch at Megamall saved me a trip to the main DFA passport center near the Mall of Asia. Indeed, before the DFA folks thought of decentralizing this passport service, people had to line up at dawn at their main office.

For a country where many of its people survive on OFW remittances, passport issuance must be brought as close to them as possible. The DFA, under than Foreign Secretary Alberto Romulo, is one government agency that saw that need early. The service I got shows they also understand customer service needs.

 Frederick D. Go, president of Robinsons Land Corporation, has recognized the value of providing various government services at their malls. “With 39 shopping malls nationwide, we are able to continuously provide public service and convenience to millions of Filipinos all over the Philippines.” 

Robinsons was the first to partner with Comelec to encourage more voters to register for next year’s election. Indeed, they offered their malls to also be voting centers for the election itself.

The idea makes sense. Not only are malls accessible, its air conditioned comfort will probably reduce the number of hotheads on election day. The mall is a good place to catch our young people and get them to register and vote. If more of them voted, maybe we could get better public officials elected.

According to Comelec, the registration and biometric desks at the malls are able to provide voters information on their precinct, allow them to verify status of their registration for new voters and capture of biometric information for new and old voters. 

Robinsons claims they have pioneered in providing government services in their malls. “In 2011, we conceptualized and created Lingkod Pinoy Center with every Filipino in mind,” says Mr. Go. 

Currently included in the Robinsons Malls Lingkod Pinoy Center portfolio are all important  government agencies:  the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) , Pag-Ibig, PhilHealth, SSS, GSIS, LTO, Bureau of Immigration, Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Land Regulatory Authority (LRA) , the Department of Trade and Industry-Small Business Corporation (DTI-SBC), TESDA,  PhilPost and now Comelec.

To date, Roseann Coscolluela-Villegas, who runs corp comm for Robinsons, claims Robinsons Malls Lingkod Pinoy centers have serviced over 8 million Filipinos nationwide. The Centers provide ease in completing requirements for OFWs and job seekers.

With the malls designed to serve the elderly and the PWDs, it is more convenient for them to use the mall facilities for renewing everything from driver’s license and passports, updates in pensions and loan applications than government offices with less amenities.

To maximize public service benefits, mall-based government agencies must operate during mall hours rather than just from 9 to 5. People have to earn a living and having to go on leave to transact with a government office during regular office hours is such a pain.

The other good outcome of our mall culture is that even the banks are now operating during mall hours. We can do our banking while waiting for our restaurant orders. For busy breadwinners, this is much appreciated.

My main complaint now is the malls don’t have enough parking, much less enough parking for senior citizens. That has been my problem with Robinsons Malls – Galleria as well as Magnolia. Megamall is hopeless unless you get there when the mall opens. Eastwood is the best in parking.

But don’t we have too many malls already? It seems like, but when a new mall opens, you just wonder where all those people are coming from.

I still think we would be better off with nice public parks with shade trees and artificial lakes and benches and nice green grass where people can relax and have picnics. The malls provide a convenience, but I feel it isn’t right to make our kids grow up thinking the mall is something close to nirvana.

We need more areas like La Mesa Park where families can be in touch with Mother Nature and children can see birds outside of cages. But that’s just me.

I get claustrophobic when there are too many people in a mall during a weekend sale. And I avoid malls during payday weekends out of sheer survival instinct. But I also realize the crowded malls I so dislike drive up our economy and our GDP numbers that bank analysts and credit rating agencies love.

So, the malls are now a big part of the Filipino culture, not just in Metro Manila but in all key population centers. I am sorry the malls have killed those quaint mom and pop retail outlets in small towns and cities like those on Session Road in Baguio, but I am probably just being too sentimental.

The important thing is our malls are constantly evolving to be even more relevant. The new services that can now be availed of at our malls provide convenience to all of us.

The malls have become our new town plazas. Maybe in the future, some mall will sponsor a presidential debate before an election. Maybe the day will come when people will say, can you defend that at Megamall? Can you rally the people at Robinsons Magnolia? That day may come soon.

Conspiracy theory

I heard this conspiracy theory on the game plan of Chiz who is also known as keso de bolero.

The real objective of Chiz, is to be president. He is encouraging Grace to run for president with him as vice president. But he is working on the side to have her disqualified on citizenship and residency issues in the middle of the campaign season.

So Chiz ends up as running mate of Jojo Binay, his one true love, if he is capable of that. Given a weak Mar Roxas, they win but Chiz is expecting Binay to face plunder and other serious charges that will force Binay to resign even before he warms his seat.

So Chiz ends up president.

Oh well, a Binay-Chiz tandem winning in 2016 will put my friend Bobby Ongpin in seventh heaven. Balesin will become Malacañang of the Pacific.

Sounds too incredible? Stranger things have been known to happen with our kind of politics. One major rule of political survival is trust no one. Hopefully Grace Poe understands that, even with her limited experience in the mud pool.

It also seems now the vice president position is not as inconsequential as it normally is. It could be a short cut to Malacanang.

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