DIE HARD III / Herman Tiu Laurel / February 3, 2014
Three great news items emanated from the City of Manila of late: 1) President-Mayor Joseph Estrada’s assistance in resolving the impasse between the Philippine and Hong Kong governments over the official apology demanded by the latter for the August 2010 Luneta Massacre of eight Hong Kong citizens; 2) the micro-management of key critical problem areas, such as the city’s traffic woes as well as the mess of Divisoria’s teeming vendors; and 3) the street-level monitoring of peace and order directly from the office of the mayor, where we personally viewed closed-circuit television (CCTV) footage of security hotspots with Mayor Estrada last week.
To beef up the monitoring system for Divisoria, Mayor Estrada is setting up several high pylons where cameras alongside loudspeakers will be installed. The Mayor wants to watch over the traffic situation, including the vendors, from his office and be able to directly issue oral commands from his post in city hall, such that no beat policeman, market supervisor, or area sweeper can hide from his eagle eye.
Before I saw the CCTV clips, I had heard (and almost believed) that Estrada was failing to clear Divisoria of its legendary congestion; but lo and behold, I saw before my eyes Divisoria’s roads free and flowing, with vendors staying strictly along the center-islands. To see is to believe, as they say.
There I saw how Estrada really meant what he said when he vowed to clear the mess that other mayors also promised but never succeeded at.
Come to think of it, from the very first month of his administration when he cleared Taft Avenue of 90 percent of its terrible traffic, he has always shown that he means business. Although there are still areas in the vicinity of the Philippine General Hospital and Padre Faura that need major action, the CCTVs that are soon-to-be installed will certainly help the mayor crack down on sleeping or pretending-to-be-sleeping traffic officers.
However, the most important contribution the mayor of Manila can give at this time, and not just for the citizens of the city, is the restoration of normal relations between the Philippines and Hong Kong. It is without any doubt that the Filipino public is now in favor of expressing an “official apology” to Hong Kong. I have discussed the matter with many different publics in my radio program, not to mention discussion groups, media “kapihans,” the “masa” the taxi drivers, etc., and the overwhelming common sense reaction is: “As the Hong Kong people suffered the deaths, there’s nothing wrong in us issuing an apology.”
Even though my son says that the attitude of netizens on the various “social media” is one of apathy, if not outright aloofness, owing perhaps to youthful arrogance or being out of touch with the sentiments of the common man, what is real and palpable is the welfare of over 200,000 Filipino workers in Hong Kong and our other economic ties with this particular Special Autonomous Region (SAR) of China.
As Mayor Estrada has always been mindful of the need for him to maintain warm ties with the Chinese government and its representatives, his promise of using this to help resolve the tensions can really bear fruit.
Still, the City of Manila has many problems to surmount. One of these is the mountain of debt it is facing. Given the dire straits of the national economy, which imposes burden upon burden on the local economies, options are limited.
Of all the cities in Metro Manila that are intending to or are actually increasing taxes, Manila has the most defensible case. Manila’s taxes have been among the lowest in the metropolis all these years. The moaning about any such tax hikes would come mostly from businessmen, but where else can increased revenues be derived? That, of course, cannot be said of Quezon City, which is again into increasing its already highest real estate, business, and employment taxes, apart from imposing a new garbage tax.
There are many major storms — both figurative and actual — ahead for the City of Manila, for sure. That’s why the same CCTV network will also be crucial in disaster relief operations, especially for the dreaded earthquakes that have been long awaited.
For calamitous events like “Yolanda,” Manila’s environmental planners, led by lawyer Donna Gasgonia, have been planning the revival of mangroves along the shores of Manila Bay where squatter communities abound, which is why I brought the reef conservation group of former Magdalo officer James Layug to Estrada’s office to help in the mangrove replanting.
But no matter how things seem to be on the up and up, worse storms may be coming to sweep Manila, the country, and the region, not unlike the financial “perfect storm” of 2008.
Last week, three international bankers, Mike Dueker of Russell Investments, Gabriel Magee of JP Morgan’s European HQ, and Bill Boeksmit of Deutsche Bank, all committed suicide. What drove them to madness, we may not yet know. But, like the eminent mayor of Manila, it’s always better to be prepared.
(Watch GNN’s Talk News TV, Destiny Cable Channel 8, SkyCable Channel 213, and www.gnntv-asia.com, Saturday, 8 p.m. and replay Sunday, 8 a.m.; tune in to 1098 AM, Tuesday to Friday, 5 p.m.; visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com; e-mail me at htlnow@fastmail.fs; and text reactions to 0923-4095739)
Three great news items emanated from the City of Manila of late: 1) President-Mayor Joseph Estrada’s assistance in resolving the impasse between the Philippine and Hong Kong governments over the official apology demanded by the latter for the August 2010 Luneta Massacre of eight Hong Kong citizens; 2) the micro-management of key critical problem areas, such as the city’s traffic woes as well as the mess of Divisoria’s teeming vendors; and 3) the street-level monitoring of peace and order directly from the office of the mayor, where we personally viewed closed-circuit television (CCTV) footage of security hotspots with Mayor Estrada last week.
To beef up the monitoring system for Divisoria, Mayor Estrada is setting up several high pylons where cameras alongside loudspeakers will be installed. The Mayor wants to watch over the traffic situation, including the vendors, from his office and be able to directly issue oral commands from his post in city hall, such that no beat policeman, market supervisor, or area sweeper can hide from his eagle eye.
Before I saw the CCTV clips, I had heard (and almost believed) that Estrada was failing to clear Divisoria of its legendary congestion; but lo and behold, I saw before my eyes Divisoria’s roads free and flowing, with vendors staying strictly along the center-islands. To see is to believe, as they say.
There I saw how Estrada really meant what he said when he vowed to clear the mess that other mayors also promised but never succeeded at.
Come to think of it, from the very first month of his administration when he cleared Taft Avenue of 90 percent of its terrible traffic, he has always shown that he means business. Although there are still areas in the vicinity of the Philippine General Hospital and Padre Faura that need major action, the CCTVs that are soon-to-be installed will certainly help the mayor crack down on sleeping or pretending-to-be-sleeping traffic officers.
However, the most important contribution the mayor of Manila can give at this time, and not just for the citizens of the city, is the restoration of normal relations between the Philippines and Hong Kong. It is without any doubt that the Filipino public is now in favor of expressing an “official apology” to Hong Kong. I have discussed the matter with many different publics in my radio program, not to mention discussion groups, media “kapihans,” the “masa” the taxi drivers, etc., and the overwhelming common sense reaction is: “As the Hong Kong people suffered the deaths, there’s nothing wrong in us issuing an apology.”
Even though my son says that the attitude of netizens on the various “social media” is one of apathy, if not outright aloofness, owing perhaps to youthful arrogance or being out of touch with the sentiments of the common man, what is real and palpable is the welfare of over 200,000 Filipino workers in Hong Kong and our other economic ties with this particular Special Autonomous Region (SAR) of China.
As Mayor Estrada has always been mindful of the need for him to maintain warm ties with the Chinese government and its representatives, his promise of using this to help resolve the tensions can really bear fruit.
Still, the City of Manila has many problems to surmount. One of these is the mountain of debt it is facing. Given the dire straits of the national economy, which imposes burden upon burden on the local economies, options are limited.
Of all the cities in Metro Manila that are intending to or are actually increasing taxes, Manila has the most defensible case. Manila’s taxes have been among the lowest in the metropolis all these years. The moaning about any such tax hikes would come mostly from businessmen, but where else can increased revenues be derived? That, of course, cannot be said of Quezon City, which is again into increasing its already highest real estate, business, and employment taxes, apart from imposing a new garbage tax.
There are many major storms — both figurative and actual — ahead for the City of Manila, for sure. That’s why the same CCTV network will also be crucial in disaster relief operations, especially for the dreaded earthquakes that have been long awaited.
For calamitous events like “Yolanda,” Manila’s environmental planners, led by lawyer Donna Gasgonia, have been planning the revival of mangroves along the shores of Manila Bay where squatter communities abound, which is why I brought the reef conservation group of former Magdalo officer James Layug to Estrada’s office to help in the mangrove replanting.
But no matter how things seem to be on the up and up, worse storms may be coming to sweep Manila, the country, and the region, not unlike the financial “perfect storm” of 2008.
Last week, three international bankers, Mike Dueker of Russell Investments, Gabriel Magee of JP Morgan’s European HQ, and Bill Boeksmit of Deutsche Bank, all committed suicide. What drove them to madness, we may not yet know. But, like the eminent mayor of Manila, it’s always better to be prepared.
(Watch GNN’s Talk News TV, Destiny Cable Channel 8, SkyCable Channel 213, and www.gnntv-asia.com, Saturday, 8 p.m. and replay Sunday, 8 a.m.; tune in to 1098 AM, Tuesday to Friday, 5 p.m.; visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com; e-mail me at htlnow@fastmail.fs; and text reactions to 0923-4095739)
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