A bit old, but on April 27, a social news site called Pappler in the Philippines published three photos.
The photo shows the third viaduct connecting Cebu Island and Mactan Island. Looking at the photo alone, one would only think it is a magnificent bridge, but the photo on the left below shows crumbling houses in the foreground of the new bridge. This area is a slum called Pasil an area that even local Filipinos in Cebu do not go near.
Rappler, which published the photo, was founded by Maria Ressa, the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize laureate, and had its business license revoked on June 29 after a court case for frequently publishing articles critical of the government.
The reason for the revocation was that the court found that Rappler had raised funds from foreign capital, which violated the law prohibiting foreign ownership of media.
Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)
Incidentally, the funds were provided by an investment firm owned by Pierre Omidyar, founder of the American auction site eBay.
The real reason for this cancellation, Maria Ressa claims, is that Rappler has been a harsh critic of the government.
If one were to look at the above photo of the third bridge without knowing this background, one would probably think that it was simply a magnificent bridge. That was my impression as well.
When it comes to the photo posted by Rappler, we can see a different intention in it. In other words, this photo is a scathing criticism of the construction of a magnificent bridge with a huge amount of money without solving the problem of poverty.
Cebu City Mayor Rama has also revealed that the redevelopment of the Pasir area was also considered during the planning of the third viaduct in order to eliminate the dilapidated and poor neighborhoods.
This picture reminded me of a movie called "Entrapment". The movie starred Sean Connery and Catherine Zeta-Jones, and the location of the last big job was the Petronas Twin Towers, which represented Malaysia, the tallest in the world at the time, but right at its feet was a common slum. In reality, the Petronas Twin Towers are located in the city, so the scene was staged to create an Asian atmosphere. It is said that Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir was terribly angry when he saw the film because it was portrayed in a way that was not true.
For Prime Minister Mahathir, who had been working hard for economic development under the motto "Look East," the contrast between slums and skyscrapers must have been unbearable.
It would be easy to say in a few words, "lights and shadows," but there must be many challenges to resolve.
The Philippines' economy is growing remarkably, and the IMF predicts that the growth rate will exceed 6% this year. So the day is not far off when we see the above picture and say, "Such a scene once existed," and I think it must be so.
