By Robert B. Roque, Jr.
Manila – my city of birth, play, study, and work – has been heralded as one of the world’s best cities for 2022 by the foreign lifestyle website Time Out.
Coming in at No. 34 among the world’s 53 best cities, Manila was reviewed by the website as “thriving again,” with everything that captivates some 20,000 travelers polled for the list.
Much admired about the Philippine capital, of course, is “the welcoming and infectious smiles of its people.” But also highlighted in Time Out’s review amid the global battle against the pandemic is that survey respondents place Manila as the “third most resilient” in the list of cities.
I take that as a reinforcement of my belief in the unfair bias of Bloomberg’s COVID-19 resilience reports from 2020 to 2021, which consistently placed the Philippines at the bottom of 53 nations it claims to be the “best and worst countries to be in” during the pandemic.
Bloomberg should eat camote!
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Being an auspicious occasion, especially for the tourism sector, there is much to celebrate in Manila’s ranking among the world’s best cities this year.
However, allow me to erase any notion that the City Council of Manila is pinning all that credit on former mayor Francisco “Isko Moreno” Domagoso.
It might appear that way – or as some social media posts have portrayed it – but the truth is that now-Citizen Isko was being hailed for his above-par leadership during the worst of the pandemic years.
To his fans, it was extraordinary that despite the limiting factors, he managed to see through the construction of the Bagong Ospital ng Maynila; the Tondominium, Binondominium, and Basecommunity socialized housing projects; the renovation of Manila Zoo; the Manila COVID-19 Field Hospital; and the digitalization of transactions in the city government.
But to his critics, these were possible because the city took out billions of pesos in loans and sold some of its prime properties to the detriment of its residents.
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While, to a certain degree, Yorme’s accomplishments have helped up the image of Manila, I believe the same recognition must be given to other mayors in the National Capital Region whose leadership was instrumental in allowing Metro Manilans to weather the painful scourge of the health crisis.
The international traveler’s poll showed that “Manila” was rated for its “cultural aspects, eclectic contemporary art galleries, high-end shopping malls, restaurants, edgy music venues, nightlife,” and other key factors like community spirit, resilience, walkability, good public transport and safety, and sustainability.
Based on this context, Time Out’s positive review of our capital city as one of the best in the world reflected the vibrancy and allure of the entire Manila metropolis.
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