The sorry state of the 2-kilometer baywalk along Roxas Boulevard is bound to be hurting both the pocketbook and the spirit of the city of Manila, which just celebrated its 446th foundation day on June 24.
The baywalk, which stretches from the US Embassy all the way to the Cultural Center of the Philippines, has long been one of Manila’s most famous and most valuable tourist attractions.
It is a mecca for both Filipinos and foreigners, offering sea-breeze strolls along Manila Bay, photo opportunities with its world-famous golden sunset, and low-cost recreation for the masses of walkers, joggers and bikers who use the strip as their common exercise track.
When Lito Atienza was Manila mayor from 1998 to 2004, the baywalk’s tourism value was fully utilized. The strip and the seawall parallel to it were decorated with colorful cement bricks and street lamps, verdant ornamentals, benches and sculptures of famous people, including that of former Manila Mayor Arsenio Lacson and Benigno Aquino Jr.
It became a popular nightspot for promenaders and people-watchers after sundown as restaurants, retail shops, bars and open-air coffee shops sprouted on the strip, complementing the Old Manila attractions in nearby Malate and drawing in much-needed tourism revenue for the city government, local businesses and residents.
Sure, a lot of people found the street lamps tacky, some even called them ugly and overpriced. The succeeding mayor, Alfredo Lim, closed down Atienza’s project, complaining there were too many establishments crowding the baywalk, that they did not pay their taxes, were too noisy and help pollute Manila Bay.
We do not contest the former mayor’s rationale. There is nothing wrong with cracking down on unrestricted commercial development, with taking a more careful, balanced approach to developing the Manila baywalk.
But there is also nothing wrong with preserving the things that make a unique attraction like Manila Bay conducive to businesses as long as the public interest is balanced against the expected private gain, and there is nothing wrong with keeping the competitive advantage upon which a city’s economic vitality can rely on.
The point is the city government at the time was able to capitalize on Manila Bay and the baywalk as a top tourist drawer, stimulating the economy and the local cultural scene.
Today, gone indeed are all the establishments and the hordes of promenaders. But the strip is also almost deserted after sundown. Even “PED XING”, or the pedestrian crossing, from the iconic Malate Church and Rajah Sulayman Park to the baywalk is no longer respected and people have to compromise their safety just to cross the boulevard.
The Manila baywalk has been relegated into a lifeless area. The bay itself is becoming more polluted. There are still piles of garbage littering the shoreline and it seems nothing has come out of the Supreme Court writ of kalikasan ordering the cleanup of Manila Bay by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources and other government agencies.
Any city or municipality with a waterfront would love to have a Manila Bay and a baywalk that could be a top tourist drawer and could provide all the economic activity and aesthetic benefits that bring tremendous financial gain and other intangibles, like community pride.
The Villaba and Inopacan municipalities in Leyte have their own baywalk developments. So does Dapitan and Dipolog in Zamboanga del Norte and other cities like Davao, which has Quimpo Boulevard; Dumaguete, which has Rizal Boulevard; and Puerto Princesa, which has its own developed seafront strip where people can view the sunset and enjoy other leisure activities.
Perhaps Mayor Joseph E. Estrada can find a healthy marriage between a Manila baywalk that allows moments of peace, relaxation and leisure and one that allows businesses to cater to people’s needs for the same. Perhaps he could find a way to make Manila baywalk as lighted and as lively as before.