As long-time readers and those who long been following the Urban Roamer would know, I have long been appreciating heritage. Over the years, I have been fortunate to meet a number of people who are passionate about it as well, thus helping me expand my knowledge and appreciation about our heritage and somehow become part of a continuing struggle to preserve what is left. That struggle, sadly, is an uphill battle that is not easy to win. In fact, a number of these battles turned out to be bitter and devastating defeats on the part of heritage. While it is easy to pinpoint blame as to who are responsible for…
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LTFRB and its “Uber” Dumb Move
There is nothing like government trying to mess up something that has been running pretty much fine, all in the name of “public welfare”, “doing its (supposed) mandate”, or whatever it may be. That surely was the line that the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) used in defending its latest move, cracking down on the mobile-based ride sharing transport service Uber this week, beginning with a sting operation against an Uber vehicle. And what is the LTFRB’s reason as to why they are going after Uber? Because it does not have a franchise that public utility vehicles should have in order for them to carry passengers.
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Greenfield Weekend Market: A Weekend Market in the Greens
Weekend markets in the eastern side of the metropolis have been growing in popularity in recent years, thanks in part to such events first organized at Ortigas Center by Banchetto, which has since then transferred to the area near Forum Robinsons in southeastern Mandaluyong. Since then, there have been a number of other weekend market venues there in the east, though few has yet to match the legacy of the former. Perhaps, the closest that would have rivalled Banchetto would be the weekend market set up by Mercato Centrale in the area of Greenfield District (right around the corner of EDSA and Shaw Boulevard) called Manda Centrale. Unfortunately, despite the…
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Metropolitan Infrastructure Developments (October 2014)
Recently, the National Economic and Development Authority, (NEDA) the government’s economic development planning body, has approved 12 new infrastructure projects to be built in the country. In particular interest to Metro Manila are 2 projects which are hoped to alleviate the metropolis’ traffic woes. (the operative word there is “hopefully”) It has to be noted though that these two projects (at least some aspects of them) are not really new. In fact, they have been long in the pipeline but it is only now that NEDA gave them the approval to get started with these projects.