How do you solve a problem like Manila?
Manila, with all due respect to its historic glory, is now the perfect example of how not to plan, manage, and lead a modern metropolis. If the World Economic Forum is in search of what might deserve the unsavory monicker of the chaos capital of the world, Manila could be in a shortlist which may include such badly-managed cities like Jakarta, Bangkok, or Delhi. Mounting garbage, heavy pollution, high crime incidence, horrendous traffic, too many squatter colonies, overpopulation, dirty and ugly scenes of half-clad beggars and prostitutes, pimps and pickpockets are the features that make Manila one of the worst places to live in. Google has a list of the dirtiest countries of the world and the Philippines is nineteenth, while surprisingly the US is twelfth. And the main reason for the Philippines being included is Manila. Most people abroad think that the Philippines is just Manila and nothing else.
Manila, of course, is not just the city by the bay, where Malacañan, Luneta, Intramuros, Binondo, Malate, and Quiapo are located. The common term Manila is actually Metro Manila, which includes such bigger territories like Quezon City, Caloocan, Marikina, and the richer cities of Makati, Taguig (because of the Global City, Fort Bonifacio), Pasay (because of the international airport) and Parañaque (because of the casinos in the burgeoning entertainment city). And so, when foreigners say I landed in Manila, they actually arrived in Pasay. The term Manila is used to designate the whole expanded area that embraces Las Piñas, Muntinlupa, San Juan, Pasig, Navotas, Valenzuela, Malabon, and even the tiny municipality of Pateros.
All these components are host to 30 million people, many from the provinces looking for jobs or waiting for passports and visas to fly and live abroad for good or for contract labor. There are people living in the streets, urinating everywhere and throwing their waste around. The police is too busy looking for drug addicts and drug couriers, they do not have the inclination to clear the streets of vagrants, petty criminals, and prostitutes. There are pockets of squatter colonies occupying government or private lots, who cannot be ejected because the red flag-carrying demonstrators would yell against the government and tell gory human rights violations to international watchdogs. And the yellowtards in the opposition would howl in the Senate and in the parliament of the streets.
Crimes and immoralities in Manila would easily make Bangladesh or Afghanistan look like the outskirts of New Zealand, and the degrees of immoral acts would make Sodom and Gomorrah appear like the holy city of Mecca. And so, how could Manila be saved if the people keep on electing ageing and recycled actors and trapos who just want to have their last hurrah? How can Manila be saved from becoming a city of chaos, crimes, and pollution with leaders who do not have vision or passion for excellence and human development, politicians who neither have the competence nor the will to save the city from total decay?
Some five to 10 years from now, Cebu, Davao, Cagayan de Oro, and Bacolod are the next candidates for the list of worst cities to live in. The only exception is Iloilo, which decided to make itself like a “breath of fresh air in a catacomb of stench and decay.” If Cebu leaders continue to sleep on their jobs, it is next to Manila in terms of traffic, garbage, crimes, and decay.
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