On Hilary Clinton's first time visit in Asia last year, the media (and I, myself) was quick to note that the Philippines wasn't included in her travel plans. The Philippines, together with South Korea and Japan, has a historic security alliance with the United States, and is the most committed (and one of the oldest) American ally in south east Asia. Clinton, however, visited Indonesia where there existed bumpy times between the two countries. Is the Philippines getting increasingly shunned by Western nations?
The Philippines was once poised to be an Asian power. With a promising economy after the Second World War, the Philippines enjoyed one of the highest rates of GDP growth in the world and was second behind Japan in terms of economic and social development. Things went awry during the time of Ferdinand Marcos when he embezzled public funds, giving them to his cronies or even keeping all of them just for himself, and well, Imelda. As of today, the Philippines, still paying the loans wasted and stolen by Marcos, finds it hard to recover from an economic trough as a result of the first People Power and civil unrest.
Once the richest country in south east Asia, the Philippines has continued to lag behind in developments and has now been overtaken by other SEA nations (We're number four now behind 1. Indonesia 2. Thailand and 3. Malaysia ! Vietnam's next, God!).
There are other countries out there that are more economically important to the U.S. than the Philippines, in this case, Indonesia. So it's no wonder why the U.S. (and other prospective investors) is increasingly shunning the Philippines.
Our government has developed a system of political dynasty, which proved to be a bane rather than a boon. Rampant corruption has never left the Philippine government, and with numerous unresolved government scandals of the Arroyo administration, the image of our government and the nation as well continues to be tainted. We badly need a facelift.
A national facelift can come in a variety of ways. The frequent one we're getting is when Manny Pacquiao wins a fight. But this isn't something Filipinos can benefit from economically, unless Manny donates or invest those millions of dollars in creating businesses and jobs. The other one is infrastructure development, and this is the major facelift we need.
The Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (Pagcor) has just recently begun construction of the Manila Bay Tourism City. This is the Philippines' take on the casino fever that is currently sweeping the world.
Park amenities include:
- The so-called Manila Eye – A Ferris wheel larger than the London eye
- A large performing arts stadium
- An Oceanarium larger than that in Rizal Park (I'm tired of Oceanariums! Scrap this please)
- Universal Studios theme park (Please, don't change this into a Super-Inggo/ Pinoy styled theme park)
- Museums (Yahoo!)
- Kidzania (have no idea what's so special about this, aside from it's a kiddie theme park)
- Large theaters
- Various five to seven stars residences
- World class hospitals (May world class doctors naman kaya? Haha. Sorry)
- Casinos
- Sports Complex
- A high speed train that will connect the Tourism City to the Philippine International Airport
Various amenities right, but the center of attraction is the proposed 2,182 ft (665 meters) Pagcor tower that will be the second tallest structure in the world (The name sucks - ang baho. Can't the name be replaced with a famous Filipino hero?).
I have been told that Pagcor tower may not be included in the overall project, but I'm still keeping my fingers crossed because if they don't include it, there will not be something of a luring aspect to the Tourism City and the project will be seen as something very ordinary.
The Manila Bay Tourism City aims to compete with gaming Meccas such as those in Las Vegas, Macau and Singapore. It will provide 225,000 new jobs and opportunities to Filipinos and will generate US$ 6 billion dollars in revenue. The project is worth US $15 billion and will be completely developed in 10 years with three phases. I've heard that phase two has just started, but I haven't seen any recent construction pictures near the Manila Bay area on the internet.
This could be the "it" facelift the Philippines need. With all the promises of the project Pagcor had said, this again arouses the Filipino's yearning of a better life and a better country. I am hoping that this won't become yet another politician's promise, which ALWAYS just end up being pinned on their ever expanding to-do lists. This project could bring the Philippines back again as the leader in south east Asia, or even better, bring back the good old days when we belonged to the list of the wealthiest countries in the world. Let's not let our hopes down and continue to aspire for a better Philippines.
More references:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pagcor_City
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