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Manila Bulletin devider Opinion devider Manny can

Manny can

Published Aug 21, 2023 05:32 pm

MEDIUM RARE

Jullie Y. Daza

If anyone can do it, it’s Manny.
 

Years ago when Senator Cynthia Villar was expressing a wish to “convert” plastic furniture into something more environmentally suitable, someone said she would need lots of money to buy or use such a machine. “I will ask for money from Manny,” she replied. End of conversation.


If anyone can, it’s Manny Villar. And now, looming on his horizon – if not yet on ours, considering the size of his ability to “dream big”—is his vision of a Villar City as the “new center of gravity of Metro Manila.” Way to go, Manny! What makes the dream more heavenly is the inclusion of a million trees to be planted across all 3,500 ha of the metropolis plus Cavite.


A new metropolis is what we wish, what we want, what we need. As Metropolitan Manila keeps growing in terms of population both human and vehicular, so has the urgency to think moving out and outward. When President Marcos Jr. sits down to craft his speech for the next State of the Nation Address, let’s hope he will share such a plan, if any. For now, we have to be contented with his program to build six million houses by the time he steps down in 2028.


A new city? It was his father, Ferdinand E. Marcos, who first thought of creating a government center in Quezon City, then the capital of Metro Manila. The idea was to move national government offices and agencies to a “center” for the convenience of citizens, but the project went only as far as the House of Representatives, which until today appears to be the most efficient and comfortable-looking government edifice (until the Senate comes up with their own multibillion-peso home).


Metro Manila needs to be decongested, and that’s an understatement. Traffic is horrendous at all hours, even during the “uncoded” hours. Commuting is a pain for passengers as well as those just waiting in the sun or rain for a ride. Metro Manilans complain about the lack of public transport, but at the same time they cannot imagine a city with more four-wheelers on the road.


One of these days we should ask Jun Palafox and Sen. Francis Tolentino to share their insights. 

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