Monday, September 04, 2006
MANILA CITY HALL
I got caught two weeks ago by Manila’s brown shirts — otherwise known as traffic enforcement officers — for color coding violation. I didn’t realize that it was way past three in the afternoon. As luck would have it, the traffic light turned red as I approached the corner of Solis and Rizal Avenue; right on the corner were two of them who immediately noticed my car's plate.
Remembering Philippines Phil’s blog entry, Driving in the Philippines, I decided to just grin and bear the due penalty. I was given a ticket while my license was taken from me, and advised to just show the ticket if ever I got stopped again. It would take about a week for my license to be ready for redemption at Manila City Hall.
Incidentally, since I’m way older than most cops and security personnel in the streets of the city, instead of addressing them as Sir, I’d often refer to them as Chief, which I noticed they would get a kick out of — respectful yet friendly. As I restarted the car, the brown shirt who issued me the ticket, to my surprise, apologized for not being able to give me a break. He confided that the unmarked Toyota Revo on the other side of the street behind us carried passengers — officers from his unit — who were observing him and his partner.
Getting back my license cost 300 pesos (about six US dollars). The process involves three steps. Firstly, I had to go to a certain window where I had to present the ticket. The clerk checked her computer terminal to make sure that my license had already arrived and recorded into their database. If not, I will be asked to return on another date.
If the license is ready for redemption, the second step is to walk over to another area (about 25 meters away) to trade my ticket for a stub with a number on it indicating my place in the line of people waiting to get their license back.
Third and final step is to head over to the redemption center and wait for my number and name to be called over a loudspeaker. Once called, I will be directed to a particular cashier's window to remit the 300 peso penalty.
I think the whole color coding scheme is a big joke, mainly because it favors the rich who can afford to buy a second car to circumvent this traffic regulation. What the city needs is a much better traffic management and improved, well-lighted streets and roadways.
Anyway, the whole process of retrieving one’s license, depending on how crowded it is, usually takes about 40 minutes. What I did while waiting to be called was take pictures of the city hall’s interior ground. With so many security personnel, as well as uniformed police and traffic officers roaming the area, I was surprised no one stopped me from taking pictures of the place.
My eldest sister Fraulein got her first job here when Villegas was the city’s mayor. She was a civil servant in the Assessor's Office until she left to pursue graduate studies at the University of Chicago.
Located at Plaza Lawton in front of SM Manila Mall, the city hall was supposedly built during the 1930s. It has a famous clock tower that is beautifully lit at night.
Unable to find any of its history online, I emailed Ivan Mandy requesting for any information. He immediately responded to say that it was “originally built during the early days of the American occupation (1901) but the current structure dates back only to the 1930s and was finished in 1941; designed by architect Antonio Toledo. It was destroyed during WWII. The current one is a post war reconstruction.”
Ivan also included a piece of trivia: if seen from above, it resembles a coffin with the clock tower as its candle. He credits Nick Joaquin as the author of this somewhat morbid comparison. He also mentioned that city hall was renamed Maharnilad during the Marcos era, and that there is an oversized mural created by Carlos Botong Francisco inside the mayor’s anteroom. I will try to gain access and take a photo of this mural another day.
City of Manila business permits are among the highest in Metro Manila; however, the business community is not complaining because of the many revitalization programs that the mayor has been actively pursuing, which translates to a surge in business growth.
Just a few meters north of city hall is the newly-refurbished Pugad Lawin Plaza; whereas the frontage of Universidad de Manila alongside the plaza, as well as the pedestrian area up to The Metropolitan Theater are all going through a transformation resembling an entire park with many brightly-lit lamp posts.
If the 300 peso fine I shelled out to redeem my license went to the coffers to fund continued revitalization programs of the city, then like the business community, I have no complaints whatsoever.
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I very much appreciate my articles and photos appearing on fellow bloggers' sites, popular broadsheets, and local broadcast news segments, but I would appreciate even more a request for permission first.
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I very much appreciate my articles and photos appearing on fellow bloggers' sites, popular broadsheets, and local broadcast news segments, but I would appreciate even more a request for permission first.
Thank you!
*
Labels: driving, life in Manila, manila city hall
posted by Señor Enrique at 6:24 AM
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