Manila Bay Summer Holiday

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For many people, the ideal summer holiday is to spend a day or two at the beach with family and friends, with lots of food, games and fun. The rich and middle-class Filipinos--as well as the well-privileged Korean tourists--often prefer Boracay, Puerto Galera, Dakak, and many other posh private beaches around the country for their summer getaway.

The Manila's poor, of course, cannot afford these private beaches--but they, too have the right to have a summer holiday, and Manila Bay is a public bay that is just a kilometer or two away. But the Department of Health(DOH), Department of Environment and Natural Resources(DENR), and the Manila City government have all banned swimming and public bathing in Manila Bay for obvious reasons.

According to DENR secretary (and former Manila Mayor) Lito Atienza: "Swimming in Manila Bay is a health hazard. Large quantities of fecal coliform bacteria indicate a higher risk of pathogens being present in the water. Some of the diseases that people can get from swimming in dirty water are ear infection, dysentery, typhoid fever, viral and bacterial gastroenteritis and hepatitis A. The water of Manila Bay, to be honest, is very, very dirty. To clean it up is definitely a gargantuan task but we have to do it, and we have to do it fast before we lose the opportunity to do it."*

Obviously, Secretary Atienza now recognizes the fact that during his long term as Manila Mayor, he had failed to initiate the clean up of the Manila Bay, and it is only now that he's heading the Environment Department that he finally recognizes the urgency that the Manila Bay should be cleaned fast**.

But with this "gargantuan task", I doubt if the Philippine government can really actually begin to clean up the Manila Bay. As it happened it not only requires gargantuan effort, but billions of pesos as well. It will prove impossible what with all the current expenditures of the war in Mindanao, the coming expenditures for the 2010 national elections, and the everyday cost of luxurious living of the Philippine President and all her government officials. And not to mention the billions of taxpayers' money being corrupted in many public works, deals and projects.

Yet, it is true--the Manila Bay is indeed very dirty and foul. But despite the ban on Manila Bay swimming, still many poor Filipinos are going there everyday to experience a summer holiday--a temporary respite to have fun and forget for a while the misery of being poor.

The Kalakal Boys' Day at the Manila Bay

This post was meant to have been published last month but I have kept on postponing because of my Iloilo vacation. Now that I have already published it, the Philippines is already on the beginning months of an early rainy season.

*http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/nation/metro-manila/04/07/09/manila-bay-too-dirty-swimming-denr
**In fact, the only thing I remembered the good Mayor did was to put up restaurants and bistros in the Manila Bay .It was quite surprising that many diners patronized these bistros despite the stench of foul sea water around them. Atienza's successor, incumbent Mayor Alfredo Lim had demolished all these bistros in his first year of office.