Duterte predicts Metro Manila’s decay in 25 years

PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte has obviously given up on any possible way of improving Metro Manila as he predicted that it will soon become a “dead city” in at least 25 years. "Manila, I think, in about 25 years, will be a dead city. It will start to decay," he said before a crowd of mostly Kapampangans inside Clark on Thursday. "Ten years from now, they should close Manila and start to develop this, this is the best. Something similar to Clark in other places – Batangas, Cavite," said Duterte, lamenting that Manila is among the few places in the world without adequate sewerage system. Duterte proposed closing factories and opening them elsewhere. He seemed to allude for the need to decongest Metro Manila all the while lauding the possible developments for Clark. Duterte said that there is a need for mass transport systems so as not to replicate the situation in Metro Manila. “You rehabilitate the place, you have to, baklasin mo ang Maynila (break Manila apart) to do that," Duterte added, stressing the need to develop other key cities in the country. It could be remembered that since 2015, leaders of the Pampanga Chamber of Commerce and Industry Inc. (PamCham) have been reiterating the need to decongest Metro Manila. However, the need to make Clark and neighboring cities infrastructure-ready has become a key issue with rapid developments in Pampanga already causing traffic and raising issues on proper urban planning. The country is also in the risks of paralysis if a magnitude 7.2 earthquake or other large scale disasters hit the country’s the financial and governing center in Metro Manila.

Read more: http://www.sunstar.com.ph/pampanga/local-news/2017/12/09/duterte-predicts-metro-manilas-decay-25-years-579011
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Yes, we can make Philippines safest for tourists

Anywhere in the world, tourists experience some of their best and worse moments. Let’s talk about the latter. Even some of the most visited places in the world like Paris, New York, London, Sydney, Barcelona, Manchester, Istanbul, Chicago and Bangkok, among others, have hogged the headlines because of bad elements in society.

In a domino effect, other countries whose tourism industries are fragile are also affected, either by unfair travel advisories, overblown stories, magnified news that barely touches the surface and biased opinions on social media.

In spite of that, tourism remains resilient. People continue to travel in spite of threats to world peace. In a report issued by the World Travel and Tourism Council, it calls on governments to work hard and adopt stringent measures to prepare countries affected by travel disruptions. It emphatically said: “The global impact of these destructive acts has been rising over the past decade.”

The Institute of Economics and Peace puts the cost at over $52 billion for the year 2014 alone. The New York Times also reported that the economic impact of 9/11 attacks in New York and Washington came closer to $3.3 billion when indirect and long-term expenditures were included.

What is our Department of Tourism (DOT) doing in light of this?

Meet the DOT TOP COPs. They are the finest men and women of the Philippine National Police (PNP) and they will be stationed in the country’s popular tourist sites to assure that the country remains a safe haven or one of the safest places for international and local tourists to visit.

“While the continuous influx of foreign guests attests to our image as a safe tourist destination, we must enhance security and preventive measures through police presence and visibility,” Tourism Secretary Wanda Corazon T. Teo said. “Needless to say, they serve not only as protectors of our foreign guests and the general public, but also as diplomatic hosts in the tradition of Filipino hospitality,” she pointed out.

At least 46 personnel from the National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) formally joined the ranks of the Tourist Police Unit (TPU) after recently completing a seminar-workshop on Tourism-Oriented Police for Community Order and Protection (TOP COP) conducted by the DOT-NCR in cooperation with the PNP. Teo said other DOT regional offices and local police units are jointly preparing to implement the TOP COP program.

“In Metro Manila alone, the DOT-NCR will hold a series of  TOP COP seminar-workshop to produce 200 more tourist police officers by 2017,”  DOT-NCR  OIC Director Ina Zara-Loyola said. Loyola spoke at the graduation of the first batch of TOP COP, citing the vital role the policemen performed in facilitating, as well as securing, major international events like the recent Asean Plus-3 Summit.

PNP chief Supt. Emmanuel Luis D. Licup, who is also a PNP deputy director for operations, addressed the TOP COP graduates, saying the program is an opportunity for them to show the outstanding qualities of police officers. “Let us put our best foot forward and earn the respect that we, uniformed men and women, so deserve,” Licup stressed.

The weeklong seminar-workshop covered the following topics: Tourism Basics and Trends; Child Safe Tourism/Child Protection Laws, Tourist Behavior Patterns and Market Profiles; Local Products and Services; Basic Investigation Procedure and Security and Safety Protocols; Community-Oriented Policing System (COP); Incident Command System; Immigration Laws and Procedures and Crisis Incident Management.

The new TOP COP graduates inducted were PSSupt. Chito G. Bersaluna of NCRPO Regional Training and Education Division, PSSupt. Rudolph B. Dimas of the Public Safety Division,  DOT-NCR Chief Tourism Operations Officer Catherine C. Agustin and DOT-NCR Training Director Mariville Ramos.

“As this developed, more policemen will also be deployed to patrol malls and other crowded areas in Metro Manila leading to the holiday season. We are watching and monitoring these places and other areas of public convergence to maximize police visibility in the above-mentioned areas,” National Police chief Director General Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa said in a news briefing.

In Central Luzon more police officers will also be assigned on foot patrol and be seen in the streets to bolster public safety, newly installed Central Luzon regional police director Chief Supt. Amadro V. Corpuz stressed, after assuming the top regional police post.

Meanwhile, Alexander Waltner, in his “Swedish Nomad,” blog continues to plug the Philippines worldwide. “Curious about the Philippines? I was there last year, and I loved it. The vibe is amazing, and there are just so many things to see and do. There are few places on Earth and the country is one of them,” he said. He went on to say that there are 25 reasons people should visit it. Jenn Brown of The Huffington Post, for her part, wrote in her column that the Philippines is a safe place to visit, saying: “There is no single word that can sum up the Philippines but there are seven reasons why you should definitely experience this country with a spectacle of contrasts.”

Patrolling the country’s over 7,100 islands is a daunting task and it is not easy. So is it safe to travel to the Philippines?  Of course, it is. Like many other countries, the US and Europe, in particular, the Philippines has areas where troubles tend to occur and areas that are generally considered safe.

Investopedia, the world’s leading source of financial content on the web ranging from market news to retirement strategies to investing in education, says, “While it is important to be aware of threats, it can be inaccurate to label the entire country as dangerous because it has known trouble spots.”

To illustrate it, it said that it would be misleading to label the entire United States as dangerous because of the violent crime statistics of Detroit and East Saint Louis. Last, it provided the clincher—it’s always difficult to use the word “safe” about travel because the word implies you will be protected from or not exposed to any danger or risk. This is never the case, no matter where you travel.

Duterte on Manila traffic: We can’t solve it on our own

By ARGYLL CYRUS B. GEDUCOS

President Duterte revealed he has approached neighboring Asian countries about the “horrendous” traffic situation in the metropolis.

In a recent speech in Clark, Pampanga, Duterte admitted, “We are living a horrendous life. Unless relief can come somewhere else, we are stuck with it.”

He added, “Ang kulang lang natin is the infrastructure for mobility. But in due time, I think in the fullness of God’s time, we will have it.”

Referring to infrastructure already pledged by Japan and China, “I hope it would come, even half of what they have offered so far.”

According to Duterte, he opted to approach these countries because government cannot solve the problem on its own.

“I went to China, started to move around and then to Japan and Korea, ‘yan ang ginawa ko. Pero kung sabihin mo na mag-asa pa ako sa tayo-tayo, mahirap,” he said.

“We will continue to suffer until such time that Japan or China, whoever gets there first to build the – and if we have the financing, then we can move,” he added.

According to Duterte, improving infrastructure, including the expansion of highwaysis among solutions to the traffic problem.

“But I think the most practical thing to do is really [improve] the mass transport system. And many are willing. It’s only a matter of the grid,” he said.

Meanwhile, Duterte said he is looking into moving industries in other key cities in the country to ease crowding in Metro Manila.

“Manila, I think, will be, in about 25 years, will be a dead city. It will start to decay and there is no way that we can rehab the place,” he said.

According to the President, the only way to save the metropolis is to start from scratch.

“You cannot rehabilitate the place. You have to – baklasin mo ang Maynila to do that, and there’s no more time and space for all of you who want to do something about it,” Duterte said.

“You have to disperse the crowd, limit the factories at some time in the future. But about 10 years from now, they should close Manila and start to develop,” he added, referring to other areas such as Clark, Pampanga.

In a bid to decongest the metropolis and create alternative hubs, the Department of Transportation (DOTr) relocated its main office from Mandaluyong to Clark, Pampanga early this year.

According to the DOTr, the move is aimed to help decongest traffic in Metro Manila and boost development in “the peripheries of the National Capital Region.”

Bases Conversion and Development Authority president Vince Dizon earlier said more government agencies will follow the move of the DOTr.

“Slowly we will be moving key government offices from Metro Manila to Clark,” Dizon said last April.

The STAR is NCR’s no. 1 newspaper

The Philippine STAR has emerged as the most-read newspaper in Metro Manila for the third quarter of 2017, according to results of the latest Consumer and Media View (CMV) survey conducted by leading global information and measurement firm The Nielsen Co.

Nielsen’s survey from July to September 2017 revealed that The STAR overtook closest competitors Philippine Daily Inquirer and Manila Bulletin in readership in Metro Manila by 0.3 and 0.6 percentage points, respectively.

In Mega Manila, it’s still a tight race for readership supremacy among the three competing newspapers.

Aside from The STAR, Filipino-language daily tabloid Pilipino Star Ngayon (PSN) also led closest competitors Bulgar and Abante in Mega Manila and Luzon, marking the first time in over a decade that PSN registered a lead in the tabloid race in the area.

In online news consumption, about 4.11 million Filipinos are consuming their news articles online in the past 12 months, 66 percent of whom are weekly online readers.

The same survey also showed that philstar.com, the official news website of The Philippine STAR, significantly grew its online visits during the past 12 months and has a large opportunity to become the go-to news website in the future.

The Nielsen Consumer and Media View is a comprehensive study on media habits, product usage and lifestyle of consumers in Metro Manila and 56 other large cities and municipalities in balance urban Philippines. Data used in the study were gathered from door-to-door personal interviews conducted quarterly among 10,000 male/female probability respondents aged 10 years and older, across all socio-economic classes (ABCDE) nationwide.

Owing to leadership in the broadsheet and tabloid categories, the Philstar Media Group continued to be the preferred newspaper brand of print advertisers.

Of total ads spent in newspapers nationwide, 42 percent were placed in titles owned by the multimedia company, which include The STAR, Pilipino Star Ngayon, business daily BusinessWorld and Cebu-based regional newspaper The Freeman.

The STAR has been the leading broadsheet in terms of advertising revenue since 2007.

In response to the results of Nielsen’s study, Philstar Media Group EVP Lucien Dy Tioco said, “This latest development is a huge boost not only in making us the absolute no.1 paper nationwide but also as the country’s biggest newspaper-based multimedia organization. All the hard work of our team is paying off to make The STAR the most relevant and viable newspaper in the changed landscape.”

PhilSTAR Media Group is the largest multimedia company in the country, owning six newspaper titles nationwide. Its parent company, MediaQuest Holdings Inc., is the media conglomerate of Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company (PLDT), which is owned by business tycoon Manuel Pangilinan.

Japanese consultant picked for Malolos-Tutuban rail project

A Japanese consortium led by Oriental Consultants Global has bagged the consulting contract for the construction of the North-South Commuter Railway (NSCR) project (Malolos – Tutuban line), the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) said.

“JICA has consistently supported transport infrastructure development in the Philippines since the 1960s. The NSCR project will be the game changer by kick-starting the large scale investment by the current administration through building a modern railway network for achieving the twin goals of addressing the serious traffic congestion in Metro Manila and enhancing the connectivity of Metro Manila and its nearby areas, thus expanding Manila’s economic sphere,” said JICA Philippines senior representative Tetsuya Yamada.

The 37.6-kilometer NSCR is an elevated railway expected reduce travel time from Malolos, Bulacan to Tutuban, Manila from 2 hours to 35 minutes and allow economic activity to spread out to surrounding areas of Metro Manila. Advanced Japanese technologies including seismic designs would be used in the railway to make the infrastructure disaster-resilient.

The NSCR project is funded by an official development assistance loan amounting to 241.991 billion yen signed in November 2015. It is among the flagship projects under the Philippine government’s Build Build, Build program.

The NSCR is part of the cooperation agenda identified between Japan and the Philippines during the first Philippines-Japan Joint Committee on Infrastructure Development and Economic Cooperation meeting in Japan early this year.

Prior to that, the Philippine government has approved the Roadmap for Transport Infrastructure Development for Metro Manila and its Surrounding Areas in 2014. Under the roadmap, the creation of two mass transit systems traversing Metro Manila from north to south – the NSCR and the Metro Manila Subway Project – is eyed to alleviate traffic congestion in Metro Manila by improving its connectivity to the suburbs.

JICA noted that although Metro Manila has a population density of 19,137 people for every square kilometer, its transportation backbone is inferior, having only three elevated railway lines with a total length of about 50 kilometers operating.