Stench in the city

Last week I wrote about the proposed ordinance in Bacolod that would mandate and impose penalties to make the rivers and creeks of the city clean, livable and with a little imagination and investment convert them into tourist attraction. More because clean rivers give us food for the spirit and the body.

We left for Manila to comply with some requirements and the time was opportune to take a look at Manila and environs weeks after they were flooded and garbage floated all around Metro Manila.

Garbage is blamed for the flooding. They clog waterways and bring in foul odor into hotel lobbies and homes, offices and restaurant.

For us in Bacolod where we get a flood now and then in some parts of the city but the waters receded in an hour or less, the sight on television of Metro Manila and nearby provinces awash with trash seems to be an exaggeration, a media event to dramatize the problem.

This suspicion is bolstered by the fact that two or three days later, Metro Manila media shifts to other dramatic news in this sordid battle for viewer rating that can mean a gain or loss of several millions in advertising revenues.

Our trip to Manila brought us to several places and we saw the usual garbage in the creeks, street corners and sidewalks. Makati City is clean with janitors and their brooms and dust pans insuring that the city streets are free of trash.

When people see the place clean they tend to cooperate and keep the area clean as well. As naturally, we also scatter or dump our garbage where there is already trash thinking this must be the city’s garbage bin.

Quezon City should be ashamed to have a large collection of trash in its streets and corners, and even in front of business establishments. I say, it should be ashamed because Quezon City is officially the capital of Philippines though some insist it is Manila. With the capital city that dirty, can we show the world how clean the rest of the country is?

Okay, Manila also wants to be the capital of the country, but it is dirtier than Quezon City so we (and Manila) really have nothing to be proud about it. Even the “lungs” of Manila, the Luneta Park, is a shame.

We came from Quezon City to visit the Recollect Seminary for a look at their archives where I was told many Spanish documents in compact discs have been transferred from Madrid and Marcella. I had already gone on the first day in Manila to the National Archives to find out how much collection of Spanish documents relating to Negros it has.

There were some good news and some disappointments but at least I know what they have and what they don’t have related to Negros during the Spanish period, especially on the founding of towns and the reason why some people and families have plenty of land while others have so little or none.

There is a lot of academic interest in this question lately and I can give only so little. Anyway, God permitting, I will be able to collect more.

We decided to meet our host for the night’s dinner at the Mall of Asia bruited about as Asia’s largest, which, not seeing or knowing others, one accepts as gospel truth. We chose the mall’s church which was really large and combined the old and the new architecture.

The drive to MOA was fine until we reached the seawall of Manila Bay. I thought somebody farted and as usual we just take it as a natural thing to happen. But the stench continued for so long, our driver finally commented and pointed to the canals along Roxas Boulevard. I said there is no canal there only to realize that the water way was full of garbage we could not see the water.

The water has stagnated probably for months thus emitting such stench that dulls the senses. The odor was nauseating from the methane gas coming out of the canals although our van was closed and air-conditioned.

Manila has become a city of stench. This stretched all the way until we reached MOA. But I thought we were freed of it until we walked towards the church. The drainage of the mall smelt of cockroaches coming out of the drains. Here is another pride of Manila, another stinking hole.

The coastal highway to Cavite sank as well. For miles the stench attacked us until we swerved away. Cavite’s canals are likewise clogged with garbage though stinking less for us inside the closed van.

After passing through the stench of these cities, the more we should prevent it from happening in Bácolod.*

back to top