Murder at the Baywalk
Did you know Manila Mayor Alfredo Lim demolished the Baywalk? I didn’t. I’m online virtually half the day, and I had not heard anything about Lim’s latest rumpus through former Manila Mayor Lito Atienza’s beautification legacies. So when Cathy told me this morning that all that remained of the famed Baywalk along Manila Bay were the ridiculously expensive street lamps and several ubiquitous stone benches, I was stunned beyond words. It’s economic and cultural homicide!
Mayor Lim’s press release to media was that the demolishing of the bars and businesses along the Baywalk was because these establishments did not have business permits; a secondary reason was the alleged proliferation of sex workers plying the trade and establishments sponsoring lewd shows. Color me skeptical, but neither of these two reasons holds much water.
It is illogical to chalk up the destruction of a solid, proven, viable tourist infrastructure, to something as trivial as a business permit; how many businesses are given second, third, umpteenth chances to secure the permit before the law moves in, after all? The Baywalk has become one of Manila’s most high-traffic tourist spots; it has almost single-handedly revived the sagging fortunes of the Malate area. Thanks in large part to the Baywalk, visiting and local revelers spill over into many of the other nightspots in Malate. Is Lim upset that city coffers haven’t gotten their fair dues? Then collect! Issue the business permits, then collect late taxes. How will destroying the Baywalk help Manila recover its lost tax revenue? Plus, it’s highly suspect. Note how there is virtually no restaurant left on Baywalk proper. Does Mayor Lim honestly expect us to believe that every single establishment on the Baywalk did not have a business permit? Please.
Reason #2 - sex trade and immorality abounding at the Baywalk - does not hold water either. With the kicking out of the restaurants - and the nightly music that has gone on to become the Baywalk’s trademark - this tourist spot has lost a significant, if not main, attraction. This brilliant piece by Pedro Dumancas, aptly titled The Baywalk Massacre, notes how an overwhelming majority of Baywalk musicians are not the gyrating hoes that Lim portrays them to be. Dumancas asks - and rightly so - why Lim would focus his ire on the Baywalk instead of the filth showing on local lunchtime television shows.
Sex workers are peddling their trade on the Baywalk. Really? The Baywalk has become one of Manila’s most popular family spots, for goodness’ sake. With those dinosaur models on the sidewalk, the traditional Filipino music, and the Children’s Library a few hundred meters down from Baywalk proper, the Baywalk has established itself as a safe venue for families and tourists. 
If there are hoes on the street, you deploy policemen to arrest the hoes, you don’t demolish the street.
In my opinion, Dumancas hits the nail on the head with his fearless statement: Lim may well be “a mayor whose real motivation could actually be to erase anything associated with his predecessor.” If I were to compare Manila tourist attractions to an NBA basketball game, the Baywalk would be the Dallas Mavs’ Dirk Nowitzki, the most valuable player on the team. What kind of coach benches the MVP?
Whatever Lim’s motives may be, I hope that he has something planned for the prime real estate that the Baywalk was. If not, well, I hope the low crime rates and no-nonsense decisions promised by Manila’s mayor will somehow suffice for the inevitable impact on the damage wrought on Manila’s economy and culture by the near-demolishing of the Baywalk.
Photo credits (from top): (1) (2) (3) (4)
Egh. I’ve only been to Baywalk at night twice and I really dislike the place. People sleeping on benches/the street, litter everywhere (including Manila bay), and shady people prowling the place. There was something really seedy about Baywalk.
Fair enough, Helga.
That isn’t an altogether unfair assessment, but again, I entreat you: big picture.
Here’s an analogy: 70s Bistro along Anonas is one of the homeliest bars in the country, but it attracts many of the country’s most respected musicians, including Cynthia Alexander, Noel Cabangon, and Joey Ayala, among many others. We shouldn’t necessarily judge the quality of the entertainment or the cultural/social/economic impact of an attraction based on its looks. I think we can still agree that Baywalk is still one of Manila’s (note: Manila, not METRO Manila) most viable income generating and culturally significant locales.
Dirk Nowitzki and Baywalk?!
He’s my favorite player but he can’t play well when it counts. Ugh.
I never really liked Baywalk so it’s not really riling me up. Hehe
i was also shocked when i found out about this a few weeks ago. it smells more like a vendetta against atienza more than anything else.
if it was just the business permits… let them pay up and continue working. if it was the sex and trade… uh… all the more when there are less people on the baywalk.
atienza did a good job of cleaning the reputation of that area which has been known for pickpockets and such. since atienza came into the picture, many movies would often use baywalk as a location dahil gumanda na siya. and duh… like you said… revenues! it has become a tourist spot, a place to take people to…
jeez. i dont really love atienza but alfredo lim just started his term an idjot!!
my feeling is that he should just have made a move and given these people deadlines–to file for the necessary permits, OR ELSE! not just to demolish things on his whims. i have been to baywalk for a number of times, and i quite enjoyed the ambience, not classy, not naman baduy, it stands for things “filipino”, i have even brought some of my foreigner visitors there. oh, well…we are not in power, they are!
There was crime and prostitution, he is cleaning up what should have been cleaned up years ago. Stop your liberal ways and wisen up or you’ll be next. He is the first one that has the balls to do something about it instead of letting the low lifes rule the town he is.
Hi Danielle! Thanks for passing by GannsDeen.com and your charming comment on my Tagboard.
Throwing out restaurants on the strip is not the way to clean up crime. Deploying policemen in uniform and plain clothes is. I don’t see anything particularly liberal in my post; what I was merely questioning was his rather unusual method in stripping the Baywalk of restaurants with what appeared to be a large lack of due process.
I don’t think the “low lives,” as you call it, ruled the Baywalk. It continued to be subject to Manila government authority; it continued to be a major income generator for the city government; it continued to be a tourist attraction. I don’t think there is a connection between ‘low lives ruling the town’ and the destruction of the Baywalk. This wasn’t an issue of liberalism and tolerance; this was an issue of culture vs. what appeared, at the time, to be a wanton attack on the few remaining bastions of independent Philippine music.
An important update, though: Mayor Lim has allowed the setting up of restaurants across the old Baywalk, along Roxas Boulevard. This pretty much nullifies everything I’d posted earlier. If Mayor Lim or his PR office (if he had one) had told the angry among us that he was going to resettle the restaurants along the area, just not at the strip facing the bay, we would’ve happily kept our mouths shut.
As it is, I do have a newfound respect for Mayor Lim because, well, the Baywalk is cleaner, and the restaurants where Filipino musicians can perform are now relocated, still near the original strip, and this time, hopefully registered with the city government so taxes can be paid and the culture scene can continue to thrive.
Thanks again for your comment, Danielle. God superbless you.