The incumbent mayor of Manila, Alfredo Lim, should keep the tourist belt of Ermita a tourist-friendly zone.
The spate of recent robberies and other forms of mayhem involving foreign tourists and men in uniform has been quite alarming.
Not only that, mendicants, vagrants, street urchins, prostitutes, et al., are familiar fixtures or sights in the area. Not to mention the proliferation of illegal vendors clogging major thoroughfares in the area, like Pedro Gil, Padre Faura, United Nations Avenue and T.M. Kalaw.
Why not make the Ermita district a pilot project of the city for urban renewal to make it competitive with other tourist belts outside of Manila?
Mayor Lim should exercise political will in transforming the tourist belt into a safer, orderly and cleaner zone.
It’s never too late, Mr. Mayor!
—PEDRO REFUERZO JR.,
jn_refuerzo@yahoo.com