Manila is coming to me
HE LOOKS tired." A tablemate's comment at the Sun.Star anniversary bash. I thought so too, watching Davao City Mayor Rody Duterte make his way from door to table to stage. He perked up a bit at the lectern, responding to his audience, and I was later amazed at his after-speech endurance and patience, standing and smiling for an almost endless line of selfie-seekers.
He looked even worse for wear-- or maybe resignation-- on Monday as he announced his final decision not to run in next year's presidential election. There are those who hope he'll change his mind at the last minute but not me. The man's done his civil whack, over and above most of those egging him on to supposedly greater things.
Let Rody retire in peace, let his children take up the running.
Over in the States, which has a similar electoral process, a most unlikely candidate is so far topping the Republican popularity polls. Donald Trump-- flamboyant businessman; says, or rather blurts, what he thinks; promises to come down hard on the bad guys; unassailable in the polls as the public, sick and tired of traditional politicians, look for an alternative.
Trump, if you like, is New York's Duterte. A no-nonsense character running a hugely successful business empire as Duterte is perceived to be the force behind a vibrant, safe and progressive Davao-- now that's what a Philippine city should look like-- and the premise behind the Rody for President folderol but wait, let's not kid ourselves. I'll not deny Davao has introduced and successfully implemented some sensible and, for the Philippines, innovative ordinances.
The smoking ban is one, another, the ban on fireworks but that's about it. Otherwise, with its burgeoning and homeless immigrant population, runaway rubberstamp development and archaic public transport system, Davao is no different from any other large Philippine city. We may not be a manic Manila quite yet (Heaven forbid) but we're getting there.
“Sewage concerns.” That was a front- page headline the other day reporting on how "foreign interns of the Department of Science and Technology noted that nearly all the waste-water in Davao City is released into nature without treatment."
For waste-water read sewage, for nature read Davao Gulf. The same Davao Gulf we rush to on holidays and highdays and then wonder why there's a run on LBM medication. The city's complete lack of a sewage system is a topic which surfaces maybe twice a year. Front page news one day. Councilors voicing their concerns the next, something must be done. All quietly forgotten by the third day.
How about public transport? There's always “something in the works”; trains, trams, bendy-buses but now and probably for evermore Davao sticks to jeepneys and a traffic-strangling, ever-increasing population of yellow gas-driven tricycles.
Look about you-- Davao is grinding to a halt. Those TV images of Edsa we gasp at every evening are here in Davao right now on J. P. Laurel and MacArthur Highway. I discovered the other day that it takes two hours to jeepney from Matina Crossing to Buhangin's Milan Crossing.
You wonder why I sweat about the city on a bicycle not caring a hoot about traffic; I wonder why the city doesn't encourage biking. Doesn't lift one official finger to oblige malls to provide bike lock-ups, doesn't set an official example by asking the younger and fitter councilors to bike to work now and again.
I last visited Manila 25 years ago. I don't intend ever going again but the way Davao is heading it looks like Manila is coming to me.-- From Sun.Star Davao
Davao may not be manic Manila quite yet but it’s getting there