Last Tuesday, for the first time in years, Claro M. Recto in Manila’s Divisoria area looked like what it is supposed to be: an avenue for the use of vehicles, with nothing to obstruct the flow of traffic.
In a mega city with an acutely inadequate road network, keeping open to vehicular traffic that stretch of C.M. Recto Avenue from J. Abad Santos to Radial Road 10 in the port district can significantly ease traffic in one of the most congested parts of Manila. Yet vendors have always ruled the area, occupying most of the avenue. During the Christmas season, they are even allowed by the city government to take over the entire stretch, which is closed to vehicular traffic.
New Manila Mayor Isko Moreno, fulfilling a campaign promise, cleared the avenue in his first week on the job. In another busy commercial area of the city, police officers also arrested two persons collecting “rent” from sidewalk vendors ostensibly for the city government. The two said they were employed by a company accredited by city hall to collect from P20 to P30 three times a day from every vendor, with spurious receipts issued.
The new city government must not stop at the collectors. Such operations cannot be possible without the knowledge of barangay personnel, who have also been the subjects of complaints over the collection of exorbitant parking fees, with no official receipts issued, in all the commercial areas in Manila.
If the city wants to collect parking fees, the amounts must be reasonable, and official receipts are needed for auditing purposes. In the crowded, polluted and often damaged streets of Divisoria, persons wearing the uniforms of the barangay and city hall collect P100 per vehicle even for 15 minutes of parking, with no official receipts issued. Those are public funds and anyone collecting and pocketing the money for personal use must be sent to prison for corruption.
Moreno’s “clearing operation” is long overdue. The question is whether he can sustain his initiatives in cleaning up the city where he used to be a scavenger in Tondo’s dump. The sustainability will depend on whether city government officials and personnel involved in various protection rackets will be brought to justice.