Manila Mayor Joseph Estrada is now working to bring back the old glory of Manila, the “Pearl of the Orient.”
Estrada, who in his first term as Manila mayor in 2013 had to solve first the city’s debt crisis, started his latest crusade by clearing the most clogged streets of the city to give them back to residents.
“The biggest problem was the fact that when I assumed office in 2013, I discovered that the city government was mired in debt. The previous administration left at least P5.5 billion in unpaid obligations. The city’s coffers only had about P200 million, barely enough to pay for a month’s salary of its employees. Meralco had threatened to cut off the city hall’s power supply because our unpaid bills have reached P600 million. The city was bankrupt,” he emphasized.
Estrada said he had to come up with measures to keep the city government running and by 2015, the city government had a general fund of P5 billion after paying all previous debts.
“We had to devote our first two years raising funds, stabilizing the government and putting up multibillion-peso infrastructure projects,” he said.
“So, with the city debt-free, stable and infrastructure and social projects in full blast, it is now time that I can fully attend to doing what I set out to do in my first day of office and that is to clear up the streets of Manila as one strong way to bring back its old glory and pride as the one of Asia’s oldest and most beautiful cities,” Estrada added..
For Manila to regain its old status as the ‘Paris of Asia,’ Estrada said the city must make itself attractive to investors, tourists and shoppers from all over the Philippines and abroad.
“You cannot do this with its shopping areas inaccessible to shoppers and their vehicles. Thus, we really must bring back order in the roads and return them to pedestrians and motorists. Make no mistake about it, there is no stopping our traffic clearing operations. There will be no let-up to our street clearing campaign,” he said.
“More progress will come if we put order in our streets,” said Estrada, as he stressed that clearing the roads of Manila of all obstructions would also help address traffic gridlocks led by Task Force Manila Cleanup head Che Borromeo.
Raon, the country’s “electronics capital,” was the latest thoroughfare to be cleared of all traffic obstructions.
“Try going to Raon and you’ll find how chaotic the street is. Sidewalks are occupied by illegal vendors and their stalls, forcing people to walk in the street. There are many illegally parked vehicles, eyesores are everywhere,” the mayor said.
Borromeo said the Raon cleanup, long overdue, was conducted after the city hall’s Bureau of Permits revoked the special permits given to sidewalk vendors in the area. The permits allow them to sell their wares in designated areas for a certain period of time.
“But the problem was, the number of sidewalk vendors have swelled,” Borromeo said.
Estrada also led the road clearing of Blumentritt Road, also known for its bottleneck, where at least 600 illegal vendors had to be removed, as well as Divisoria where some 2,000 illegal vendors were evicted. Nearby side streets such as Oroquieta, Felix Huertas and P. Guevarra were also cleared of obstructions.
While he said it pained him to deprive the vendors of their livelihood, Estrada stressed he has to think of the welfare of the general public.
City engineer Roberto Bernardo said they also cleared Juan Luna, Recto Avenue, Soler, Dapitan, and adjacent roads.
“We should take out the root of the problem. And the root is these individuals and groups that provide protection to illegal vendors and terminals. Whoever they are, whoever their backers are, they should be demolished,” the mayor said.
Estrada directed Borromeo to exhaust “all available legal methods” to identify protectors of illegal vendors and terminals and bring them to court.
Borromeo said these protectors “lease out” portions of sidewalks and even valuable road spaces to vendors where they could put up tents and sell their wares, promising that the police and city hall would not touch them.
To further decongest traffic along Recto Avenue, particularly the portion leading to and from Divisoria Market, Estrada has likewise prohibited vegetable cargo trucks from traversing the roadway. He noted that truckers block traffic along the 500-meter stretch of Recto Avenue.
He told vegetable dealers they can use the side streets around Divisoria to park their vehicles and unload their merchandise.
Dennis Alcoreza, head of the Manila Traffic and Parking Bureau, said about 20 to 30 vegetable trucks from Benguet, Baguio, and other provinces unload their cargoes along the subject portion of Recto Avenue every night, disrupting traffic flow.
“It’s Wild, Wild, West there. They don’t care because they know it’s the government that’s cleaning their mess,” Alcoreza lamented.
Estrada also encouraged the public to go out of their vehicles and walk. He said that in highly urbanized cities such as Tokyo, Seoul, New York, and Beijing, people seldom use their private vehicles as they prefer the mass transport system.
“They usually walk and explore the cities on foot, which is a good exercise and stress-reliever, and incidentally helps reduce traffic volume in the road,” he said.
“We are putting order back in our streets,” the mayor added.