--Narendra Modi
By Alex P. Vidal
NEW YORK CITY -- A Filipino-American vacationer from New York City has agreed with Philippine Supreme Court Chief Justice Lucas Bersamin that “Iloilo City now looks like Singapore in terms of cleanliness and orderliness.”
Rommel Leal, 48, who lives in Jamaica in New York City, said he wanted to see for himself if Bersamin’s observations about Iloilo City were true, thus “surveyed” the City of Love when he went home for a week-long vacation first week of April this year.
Bersamin and his wife were reportedly impressed by the city’s cleanliness, including the Iloilo River, when they visited Iloilo City during the 17th National Convention of Lawyers held at the Iloilo Convention Center from March 28-31, 2019.
“In fact, Iloilo City is cleaner than the Queens (a borough in New York City),” said Leal, who grew up in Lambunao, Iloilo.
Queens is known for the JFK and LaGuardia, the two important New York City airports. It is also known for the Unisphere in Flushing Meadows Corona Park, a remnant of the 1964 World's Fair. Nearby are CitiField (home of the Mets) and the Arthur Ashe Stadium, home to the US Open Tennis tournament.
“Every morning, I saw a lot of street sweepers combing the highways, especially in the Iloilo Business Park and in the Diversion Road,” observed Leal.
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Leal hailed the local government’s efforts to maintain cleanliness and orderliness in Iloilo City even as he noted “an apparent increase in the number of tourist arrival” during his short visit.
Leal had intended to spend only his time in Boracay in Malay, Aklan in his recent vacation, but decided to travel in other parts of Panay on his way to Iloilo City “to find out if there were any physical progress and development outside Metro Manila.”
“I became curious when Chief Justice Bersamin praised Iloilo City and compared it to Singapore,” he said. “From Boracay I traveled to Iloilo City and passed by Antique and Capiz.”
Leal said he noticed that Roxas City had a “poor and undeveloped highways including the Passi City roads while progress was seen in the roads in Antique and in the municipalities of San Joaquin and Guimbal in the first district of Iloilo.”
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He also credited the Duterte administration for the progress in Mactan International Airport where he arrived from the US on his way to Boracay.
Leal said he surmised that because of the many infrastructure projects that are visible all over the country undertaken under the present administration, “people might ignore the issues about the president family’s alleged involvement in the narco business as alleged by a certain video maker Bikoy.”
Because of what he saw, Leal vowed to encourage other US-based Filipinos to visit Iloilo City and Panay Island “so they can also witness for themselves how tourism there has developed by leaps and bounds.”
(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two local dailies in Iloilo)
“Every morning, I saw a lot of street sweepers combing the highways, especially in the Iloilo Business Park and in the Diversion Road,” observed Leal.
-o0o-
Leal hailed the local government’s efforts to maintain cleanliness and orderliness in Iloilo City even as he noted “an apparent increase in the number of tourist arrival” during his short visit.
Leal had intended to spend only his time in Boracay in Malay, Aklan in his recent vacation, but decided to travel in other parts of Panay on his way to Iloilo City “to find out if there were any physical progress and development outside Metro Manila.”
“I became curious when Chief Justice Bersamin praised Iloilo City and compared it to Singapore,” he said. “From Boracay I traveled to Iloilo City and passed by Antique and Capiz.”
Leal said he noticed that Roxas City had a “poor and undeveloped highways including the Passi City roads while progress was seen in the roads in Antique and in the municipalities of San Joaquin and Guimbal in the first district of Iloilo.”
-o0o-
He also credited the Duterte administration for the progress in Mactan International Airport where he arrived from the US on his way to Boracay.
Leal said he surmised that because of the many infrastructure projects that are visible all over the country undertaken under the present administration, “people might ignore the issues about the president family’s alleged involvement in the narco business as alleged by a certain video maker Bikoy.”
Because of what he saw, Leal vowed to encourage other US-based Filipinos to visit Iloilo City and Panay Island “so they can also witness for themselves how tourism there has developed by leaps and bounds.”
(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two local dailies in Iloilo)
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