Development of the Pacific Coast (The solution to the problems of Metro Manila)

Fifth Part

As discussed in our earlier articles, Metro Manila, with its limited space and resources, is breaking at the seams, hardput to provide a decent quality of life to the mass of its current 14 million population. Indeed, the problems of megapolis Manila are enormous.

Already its road network is suffering from overcapacity and overuse. With its ever mounting population, basic public utilitites such as water, power, mass transportation and waste disposal are severely compromised and overburdened.

Power delivery is strained to the limits with the bulk of the squatter colonies getting their electricity through illegal connections. Traffic is ever a major concern and problem despite the on-going construction of a mass railway transit system.

The problem of waste disposal is of no small concern. As early as 1998, the daily waste generation of Metro Manila was more than 6,000 tons of garbage. Of this figure, only 4,500 tons were being collected. The rest, particularly those from the squatter areas, were either illegally dumped in vacant lots or thrown into creeks and rivers such as the Pasig River, and polluting the waterways. The garbage problem stinks to high heavens.

Due to the lack of an adequate drainage system, the poor maintenance of roads and the exacerbation from the squatter colonies, residents of Metro Manila experience the fiercest of floods during the rainy season. They are bound to live through bigger floods.

The growth of the urban population has exceeded government’s capacity to provide adequate housing. Thus, shanties or "barong-barongs" dot whatever space is available. The shanties sprout on public lands and even vacant private titled lands. Squatter communities abound, their shacks a tangible symbol of their utter deprivation and poverty.

As naturally, Metro Manila’s squatter colonies become the breeding grounds for criminality. The squatters, most of them unemployed, are easy recruits of the crime syndicates such as gambling, drugs, kidnapping, robbery and prostitution. There is a total breakdown of morals.

With this backdrop, could Metro Manila ever be a tourist destination? With such a dismal profile, can we ever attract foreign tourists to this burdened metropolis? The obvious answer is no. Yet, there is an urgent need to attract international tourists to our shores as they are a veritable source of the much needed foreign dollar earnings.

Discounting Metro Manila, the country’s endless shoreline and its temperate climate are like a Bethlehem star to foreign senior citizens, those from 60 years and above, of severe-wintered areas as that of Northern Europe and the North Americas. People of such age and place long for the beaches of sun-touched coastlines such as that of the Philippines.

The Resort City

Fortunately for the country, just 60 kilometers east of Metro Manila is a master-planned "Pacific Coast City", so called because it is located in the coastline of the Pacific Ocean. A significant component of this project is a Resort City, dedicated to entice the international tourists, most particularly the semi-permanent and permanent tourists, to the country.

The Resort City of the Pacific Coast City is located at the coastal areas and beaches of the Pacific Ocean, specifically at Dingalan, Aurora and General Nakar, Quezon. The beauty and splendor of its pristine beaches remain as natural today as it has been since time immemorial. It is on these shores where the Pacific Coast City proposes to create a haven for international tourists, a place where they can enjoy the tropical paradise, either semi-permanently or permanently, and spend their dollars here in the process.

In California, for example, its developed coastlines were bought mostly by Asians. The Pacific Coast Cities project proposes to do the same in its Resort City through the setting up of the requisite tourism infrastructure such as good transportation and communication, hotels, retirement homes and beachside facilities and amenities. The Pacific Coast City project envisions to lease out its planned beachside retirement homes to tourists on a 75-year long-term lease. This way, we can capture their valuable currency that will recover the expenses used to develop the Resort City, and even leave some to pay-off our foreign debt.

The possibilities of the Resort City of the Eastern Luzon Seaboard are, indeed, promising.

On the whole, our countryside has vast natural resources with tremendous and unlimited potential. Had our countryside been developed as planned long ago through long-term financing, then there would have been beautiful places for people to live on and work in. The government could have reversed the mass migration into the cities such as Metro Manila. For now, government must once more renew its drive to overturn the migration process by enticing the city dwellers to relocate to the countryside.

In this regard, the Pacific Coast City is a perfect model that government should replicate in all parts of the countryside that are idle, depressed and underdeveloped.

You may write your comments/suggestions at 15/F Equitable Tower, Paseo de Roxas, Makati City or through e-mail at "HYPERLINK" HYPERLINK "mailto:[email protected]"

(Editor’s note: Atty. Roxas is writing a limited series of articles dealing with financial matters and other important business topics. He is available for speaking engagements on the subject matter of his articles.)