Are we really giving up on Manila’s last chance to become a walkable green city once more?
Manila – the dream city of almost every Filipino, from different job opportunities to beautiful landmarks, one could argue that growing up in the country’s capital is a marvelous experience, for most Manileňos, if not for all. This would’ve been truer if one looks at Manila from a small picture. With a deeper context, while the city has some amazing spaces, everyone can see that the metro that was once loved is now polluted to the core.
Devastating it is that Metro Manila is now associated with urban decay. Slums, garbage, and more and more buildings rising on grounds with already congested traffic have undeniably destroyed the place. The green is not greener, and roads are loaded with heavy traffic, more and more funds are being invested for infrastructures that continue to make the city populated more than its capacity and to put more money on the rich’s pockets.
Should this continue, the future of the metro is a blur – a dead city trying to cover up its downfall with living people and smoke everywhere. Not to mention the way a lot of buildings are built on hazardous areas, making the city prone to natural destruction.
Right now, what might just save the capital from rotting is a whole makeover, and fortunately, since the call to save the city from decay there have been many improvements to Manila’s built environment. The question now is with the need to cater to the city’s exploding population and traffic with seemingly impossible solutions, how short-lived is this “makeover?”
A Rotting City
For years, city leaders and experts have been trying to redesign the capital and since then, providing a sustainable and feasible solution for Manila’s development has imposed a challenge. As the most populated area in the country, people continue to occupy free spaces, and traffic continues to get congested which makes way for another problem. As if a lost cause, Metro Manila is either a place of hope or a planner’s nightmare.
Years of a growing population have led to little space for nature to paint the city green. A simple look at Manila’s map would make one realize that only around 10 percent of Manila’s land space are left for green areas, and large spaces that include greenery are only dots to be seen on the map – the sight of that alone would be too devastating to anyone who cares enough.
As green spaces in Manila decrease, so does the quality of living as heat increases due to urbanization. The built environment would soon show more harm than good, and the capital would be nothing but a rotting city.
Farewell to Nature’s Welfare
In the middle of concrete chaos, Manila still has eco-parks and pleasant nature to offer. Located on the south bank of the Pasig River is an urban forest that is known today as Manila’s Last Lung. A 22-hectare land serves as a habitat for different trees and animals known as the Arroceros Forest Park is one of the few green spaces in Manila that stands strong beside the fast-paced urbanization of the city.
Lush with flora and fauna, the Arroceros Forest Park remains healthy despite previously imposed threats over Manila’s hidden jungle. Previous governments reigning over the capital have expressed plans on risking one of the fees remaining bustling green spaces in the city for redevelopments. A proposed school gymnasium by former mayor Estrada is worth mentioning, and even plans of building roads and condominiums over the land have sparked controversies over the welfare of this hidden sanctuary for nature.
Just last year, many critics and conservatives have called actions are done on the forest park “preposterous” and “a threat to the environment.” Manila’s current mayor Isko Domagoso has called for redevelopment plans on the park, covering the ground with pavements to make the space user-friendly and “improve the forest,” and even planning to open kiosks and public toilets inside.
Though the intention is good, many have expressed their disappointment over the decision of sacrificing trees and the natural habitat of different species living there. Mayor Isko however emphasized that the Arroceros Forest Park would remain as a bustling green space and even signed an ordinance for its protection, claiming that this is just one of the many actions that need to be taken to make Manila a “green city.”
“But how can you improve a forest? It’s already there – over 30 kinds of birds identified, all these flora and fauna; they’re already inside. You destroy all that by putting these paved structures,” said Chiqui Sy-Quia Mabanta, president of the Winner Foundation (WF) in an interview quoted by Inquirer.
Like a cliché cliffhanger to a movie with a villain-centered plot – even after signing ordinances for the welfare of the green space, the Arroceros Forest Park is not yet safe.
A “Concrete” Solution?
As of 2021, Manila was listed as one of the cities with the most congested traffic, ranking 4th worldwide despite the decrease in transportation due to the lockdown. To offer traffic relief, project Pasig River Expressway, known by many as PAREX, which is a 19.37 km six-lane expressway covering the whole length of the Pasig River. Developers claim that this development might just be the solution for Manila’s 24/7 heavy traffic, however, the public is saying otherwise.
At first glance, the PAREX is but a common project that would cater to Filipino’s needs of faster travel between stops, but with context, this “concrete” solution might just not be the best option we have. Since the day the expressway development plan had been exposed to the public, the majority expressed their dismay and it became infamous for its cost (around 90 billion pesos), and experts are continuously spreading awareness on why the PAREX might do more harm than good.
Urban Planner and Landscape Architect Paulo Alcazaren is known for his proposed development plans that are sustainable, cost-friendly, and eco-friendly, one of which worth mentioning is the Iloilo Esplanade which was applauded by the public. He serves as one of the leading voices that educate people about PAREX and why it is not a solution to Manila’s traffic congestion dilemma.
In an interview with One News, Alcazaren shared, “Basically the PAREX was hoisted as a solution to our ‘traffic woes’ but the fact of the matter is, building more roads will not ease traffic unless we refocus our infrastructure building to public transport and non-motorized pedestrian rides.” He also explains how this ridiculous project will harm the Pasig River, making it more polluted with cement, . “Because it passes along or on top or beside the (river), it brings (additional) pollution to a corridor that didn’t have any air pollution,” Alcazaren explains.
More than this, the PAREX is nothing but a threat to some of Manila’s heritage structures that are built along the Pasig River, and even more of a threat to the river’s function as a floodway during natural calamities. Not only that, but the Arroceros Forest Park which has experienced many threats of development plans is now at risk of being destroyed as soon as this ambitious project takes over the whole of Pasig River. In this time and age, shall one wait for nature to give its wake-up call to stop building harmful infrastructures?
As for the user-friendliness of this project, San Miguel Corporation designed the expressway to be high above the ground, which Alcazaren points out as something that is not beneficial for the minority such as the elderly and persons with disabilities, and even bike lanes (which SMC claims to put on the PAREX would be hard to use as a road tens of meters above ground level would require a lot of stairs to flight.
What about the welfare of the users, and the nature of the realization of this infamous project? Is PAREX really the concrete solution, or is it just another ill-architecture that would soon contribute to more and more urban decay? How will Manila live again with these threats?
Urban Design to Combat Decay
Architecture is well-known as the art and science of planning spaces, an umbrella term that covers residential plans, landscaping, and urban planning to make the environment not just pleasing to the eyes but also for people to find it easier to live in. Without proper planning and design, a community is exposed to different threats, and ill-planned architecture is nothing but a real nightmare that would ‘murder’ its users and the environment.
With all these controversies regarding Manila and the development plans that have risen to possibly make the metro ‘the capital’ that everyone has been waiting for it to develop into, it seems like this dilemma is just leading into another dilemma without escape. Fortunately, architecture is a convenient art that gives people options, and after years of development, Manila is still far from a lost cause.
Architect Paulo Alcazaren still believes that Metro Manila will soon face the true makeover it needs. Starting from the PAREX controversy, he shares a nature-friendly alternative that gained approval from thousands of his followers. PARES, which is an abbreviation for Pasig River Esplanade is what he dubbed his offered solution, and it is an Esplanade on both sides of the Pasig River that roughly stretches from the river’s start to end.
According to Alcazaren, this esplanade would ensure river protection, and would not harm heritage sites and eco-parks such as the Arroceros Forest Park, and it is surely more user-friendly than the PAREX. “The easements would also allow for access to the river for maintenance (now currently a challenge because of formal and informal settlers and encroachment),” the architect explains in an interview quoted by ABS CBN news.
As he shows how PAREX harms several Manila heritage sites such as parts of Intramuros and the famous Jones Bridge, he also shows how his plan PARES would help conserve these sites and even contribute more to Manila’s tourism and welfare. “If conserved, these sections of Pasig will be as visited by tourists and loved by locals as the Yarra in Melbourne, Boat Quay and Clark Quays in Singapore, and The Bund in Shanghai.”
PARES seems to be too good to be true, and the architect even acknowledges the lack of its ability to decongest traffic problems, however, he rather points out that having an esplanade would promote mobility to bike users and the majority of the public, “Traffic is just the symptom of the real and larger problem of the lack of a comprehensive transport system that focuses on moving people and not cars,” Alcazaren states. “These will help address connectivity – the real issue that can impact mobility for all (not just the 15-20% who own a car).”
Metro Manila is not yet dead. It however faces its downfall with the lack of planning, which makes the PAREX an almost death sentence for the capital’s hope for restoration. Architect Alacazaren is just one of the many skilled Filipino architects that can give a friendlier solution to Manila’s conundrum.
We should not yet give up on Manila’s last chance of being a walkable green city again. There are lots of options, different plans that offer security to nature and its users. The Arroceros Forest Park and the Pasig River are just one of the many notable sites in Manila that serve as a hopeful symbol that maybe, just maybe, Manila will be alive again. As the country faces a new year, may there be new beginnings for this ever-bustling city, and become a living city filled with green spaces once again.
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