‘…Manila (and Metro Manila) has a lot of catching up to do if it wishes to create an image and impression of a city or metropolitan area as safe as Singapore or even Bangkok.’
THE other day, while scrolling through my social media feed, I espied an article that listed the world’s cities ranked according to the safest and the most dangerous.
Not surprisingly, cities like Singapore and even Bangkok were on the list of the safest cities in the world. And well-deserved, if I base my opinion on the short times I’ve been in both cities. Over the last three decades, I’ve never witnessed a pickpocket or a snatcher or a riding-in-tandem incident, and I’ve rarely seen uniformed policemen on patrol.
In fact, I’ve of late been telling friends about my Bangkok Chinatown experience – on four different visits, I’ve trooped to Chinatown to enjoy the food stalls set up as night falls and tourists clog up the sidewalks. I have to admit that while sitting enjoying my hot noodle soup I’ve marveled at how Asian and Caucasian tourists walk to and fro, apparently unconcerned that pickpockets are among them.
During one of those trips I was with a friend from Tondo and we were teasing each other about doing a similar “night food stalls expo” in his area for tourists to flock to. In response, he remarked to me in Filipino that if this were to be tried back home, the nearby police precincts would be swamped with reports of petty crimes.
I need not say anything about Singapore. Who does?
Manila, on the other hand, was listed among the most dangerous. While I may not agree that it “deserves” its high rank (it was the 5th most dangerous in one list that I saw), I have to admit that Manila (and Metro Manila) has a lot of catching up to do if it wishes to create an image and impression of a city or metropolitan area as safe as Singapore or even Bangkok.
The usual excuse given for the prevalence of petty crimes in our cities is rampant poverty, especially in pockets of our urban population, urban poor ghettos in which crime is bred. Population growth is likewise a factor especially when the better off have fewer children than the worse off. And then there is the problem of law enforcement, with our very own law enforcers struggling under an image of being complicit with the crimes of underworld elements, an image not improved by legislative hearings on such things as seeing controversial characters escape the law allegedly with the help of elements of our law enforcement units.
I would like to think that pockets of extreme poverty in our urban areas, coupled with population jumps among the very same sectors of society, are only one part of the equation that makes Manila (and the rest of our urban areas) “dangerous.” The other side of the equation is just as impactful: when the rich and powerful are seen as able to avoid being held accountable under the law, then the whole justice system/legal order is weakened.
Hence the impression of being “dangerous,” which is not entirely unjustified.
And which, I fear, we do not have the political or social will to get rid of.
