Photo by The Philippine Star

LAST JUNE 20, 2013, former President Joseph “Erap” Estrada was officially named the mayor of Manila after a very heated, high profile race against then-incumbent Alfredo Lim.

Despite being in office for merely three months, Erap has already grabbed headlines and raised eyebrows with his actions and plans for the city. From traffic to entertainment, it is clear the new mayor is on a mission to clean up Manila.

Lim’s leftovers

In an article entitled “Erap’s challenge” published in Manila Standard Today, former government official Francisco Tatad said that the former president’s biggest obstacle would be what his predecessor left behind.

“As mayor, the first thing Erap saw was that Lim had run the city coffers to the ground and that he was taking over a bankrupt national capital,” he wrote. “What Manila needed was not just a mayor, but a savior.”

Benjamin Barretto, a part-time faculty member of the Political Science Department, agrees that Erap’s biggest challenge has to do with Lim’s previous administration, but not necessarily any problems the former mayor left behind.

“My sense is [he’s] looking at the plans of former Mayor Lim and then trying to find a way to be different from [him],” he says.

Citing Erap’s plan to change the streetlights along Roxas Boulevard, he adds, “He feels like the streetlights of Lim are not good. [Estrada seems to be saying,] ‘They’re carnival type so I’ll change [them] for my own.’”

“He keeps on comparing himself to the former. The battle of Manila in May 2013 was really very competitive and personal,” says Barretto.

Erap’s changes

Arguably Erap’s biggest change so far is the bus ban, which prevents buses with no terminals within the city from entering it.

This new resolution, which was passed on July 16 and first implemented on July 23, has been contested on several occasions by different bus owners and firms. At one point, bus drivers attempted to force themselves into the city but were stopped by Erap himself.

Despite these complaints, however, the ban has been receiving positive feedback from citizens.

Mayumi Catabijan, a communication junior who used to live in Manila, says that the buses have always been the biggest cause of traffic. “They would occupy two lanes, they would stop in the middle and they would clog the whole of España. After you pass by them, though, the roads are clear,” she says in a mix of English and Filipino.

“Recently, I went back to my old house and passed the same way,” she recounts. “It was so much better; traffic was so much smoother.”

In a statement given when the resolution was first implemented, Manila Vice Mayor Isko Moreno said the ban was only the beginning of a grand plan to ease traffic flow and congestion in the city.

Another plan that has been causing quite a stir is the proposed reclamation of Manila Bay, on which the Manila Solar City will stand.

The Solar City, envisioned as a world-class commercial and residential entertainment hub, will reportedly produce 100,00 jobs during construction and 500,000 more when it is finally operational.

However, many say that it will cause more harm than good.

“We already have too [many] abandoned whatnots in Manila,” Catabijan says. “Instead of adding more land, just improve what we already have. Adding to it will just add more problems or add more of what you need to control.”

Legal management junior Mat Mirhan also questions the move. “I do not see why Erap would focus on that. There are clearly other problems, such as Manila’s rampant poverty, that Erap should first focus on,” he says.

Last January, the Save Our Sunset Manila Bay Coalition said that the reclamation would only worsen Manila’s flood situation. On top of that, it skirts around existing laws and is an example of a further lack of public consultation on municipal matters.

During a press conference held by the coalition, the chief executive officer of World Wildlife Fund Philippines, Lory Tan, also countered the plan’s premise of increased employment opportunities. “How many existing jobs and livelihoods will the reclamation destroy? The money will go to a few; it won’t trickle down to the people.”

Looking to the future

Even with Erap’s fast-paced start to his mayorship, there is still much to be done.

“What I’ve always told friends about Manila is that Manila is not dying. It’s just ignored—largely ignored,” says Catabijan.

For Barretto, the true problem Erap should be targeting is the rampant poverty within the city. “I’m more concerned [with] how he should deal with the poor in Manila… The question is, how [do you] lessen poverty in Manila given your situation that you’re almost a bankrupt city?”

Before his term even began, the deposed president consulted his former cabinet members about his plans to handle the city financially. Erap also enlisted the help of popular, high profile personalities who are experts in their respective fields. Among them are controversial tour guide Carlos Celdran as his tourism consultant and former basketball player Philip Cezar as the head of the Manila Sports Council.

These appointments will hopefully augur a more promising future for Manila. However, Barretto reminds the populace to remain wary and watchful. After all, there is a difference between talking and actually doing.

“Yeah, he’s doing the right thing to clean up Manila. But unless he takes care of these two things—budget and poverty—it will all be rhetoric at the end of the day,” says Barretto.

“It’s only been 3 months, so he has three years to get moving,” he concludes.