‘Is poverty to blame? Is desperation to blame? Is poor enforcement of the law to blame?’
I ACCOMPANIED three friends to the Club Intramuros golf course last Sunday so that two of them could try out the course for the first time in their lives – and in Philippine history haha.
I mention Philippine history because the course is built around the walls of Intramuros – the Spanish enclave established in the 16th and 17th centuries and became a major “player” in many historical moments such as the execution of Jose Rizal in 1896 and the Liberation of Manila in 1945.
I could just imagine how many pairs of eyes of the Guardia Civil, the USAFFE, and even the Kempeitai watch us as we move around from hole to hole attempting to conquer the short and narrow but trap-laden par-66 course. We can’t see them, but we could see the young men and women sitting atop the ramparts holding hands, even hugging, many oblivious to our poor level of play. Which is just as well.
There is no ignominy in anonymity. But there is ignominy in the fact that those who play the holes of Club Intramuros can be and have been subjected to crime. Because some of the fairways are parallel to the streets around Luneta, there have been players – some of them Korean nationals – who have had their bags stolen from their golf carts as they made their shots or putts, with the “salarin” outsiders who cross the high fence of the golf course to enter the fairways and steal. This, despite the presence of barbed wire atop sections of the wrought iron fencing that separate the course from the sidewalks.
This is embarrassing, especially in the light of the hundreds upon hundreds of tourists from every part of the globe who walk around Bangkok’s Chinatown without having to worry that their pockets would be picked or their bags slashed. Or tourists In Hong Kong who wear their backpacks on their backs (where they are supposed to be) rather than in front (as they are worn here in Manila). The point is, in many of our neighboring countries, a tourist doesn’t have to worry about petty crime. Here in Manila, it’s a different thing altogether.
Maybe it’s our claim to be on par with cities in Europe like Paris or Vienna where pickpockets abound, or those in the United States where you can get accosted by a drunkard or a homeless person, or where you can be a victim of some random shooting.
But seriously, we cannot attract and benefit from the tourism dollars that many of our neighbors wallow in if petty crime is a day-to-day reality that a visitor has to face if he decides to walk our streets or even take our public transport.
Is poverty to blame? Is desperation to blame? Is poor enforcement of the law to blame?
The blame game aside, the reality is when tourists cannot rave about the safety of Manila’s streets as they rave about the safety of Bangkok’s or Hong Kong’s or of course Singapore’s streets, then wishing to see a multifold increase in our tourist arrivals will be wishful thinking.
As is, I suppose, imagining a morning when petty crime in most of Manila’s touristy areas — Intramuros, Malate, Luneta, etc. — is no more.