Moreno touts Manila Zoo renovation

MANILA, Philippines — Presidential aspirant Isko Moreno said yesterday he wanted to rehabilitate the decrepit Manila Zoo and the clock tower at city hall within his first term as mayor.

In a radio interview, Moreno said he wanted to clean up Manila before his term ends next year.

Moreno is running for president in the May 2022 elections.

“I saw all that is dirty in Manila. And how can you clean up the outside of your house if you can’t even clean your own?” he said in Filipino.

Moreno said he wanted to make Manila’s clock tower “Instagrammable” by turning it into a museum and a venue for art exhibits.

The city government plans to set up a coffee shop in the city’s clock tower to give tourists a 360-degree view of Manila.

Moreno said the clock tower, which was designed by architect Antonio Toledo and built in the 1930s, was neglected during the previous city administrations.

“We fixed it and made it safe and appealing to the eyes as a historical area for students to visit,” Moreno said of the clock tower, a heritage site that was renovated after World War II.

Meanwhile, Mali, the resident elephant in Manila Zoo for over 40 years, has been given a bigger enclosure in the newly renovated facility, which will have its soft reopening on Dec. 30.

“Hopefully, Mali will have 10 more companions. We made a sculpture that looks like her. Mali is getting old. At least with the replica we will never forget her,” Moreno said.

Mali got a larger space in the five-hectare zoo amid calls from animal rights groups to free her and transfer her to a sanctuary.

Animal rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals has been calling on the city government to free Mali. PETA says Mali has suffered “potentially fatal cracked nails and foot pads, which are open to infection, and overgrown cuticles due to living in a concrete enclosure for over four decades.”

“For her physical well-being, Mali needs grass to cushion her aching joints and room to move, not a cramped pen,” PETA said on its website.

The city government has turned Manila Zoo into a nature park that is home to plants and trees, according to Moreno.

“It became a botanical park and zoo,” he said.

Visitors will be able to walk around the park and interact with the animals kept behind bulletproof glass instead of cages, the mayor said.

City hall also fixed the zoo’s sewage treatment plant after it was flagged by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources for dumping untreated wastewater in Manila Bay in 2019.