DMCI: The Terror de Manila
One step forward. Two steps back.
Never have I seen Luneta so clean and so full of hope. Thanks to the efforts of Jett Villegas, the fountains of Rizal Park finally work, the grass is being replaced, and the long abandoned waterfall is being repaired.
Even those nasty smokestacks, which have blighted the sightline of our national hero’s monument for decades (middle right photo) has finally been demolished. Today, the sightline of the Jose Rizal has never been so perfect (top).
But not for long. If DMCI Holdings has their way, they’re gonna build a huge mid-range condominium complex RIGHT behind our national hero (middle left shot). The project is called Torre de Manila. So from hereon, everytime you take a photo or look at our National Hero and think of him - you will also take in the sight of this Terror of Manila.
I mean, not only is this building offensive to our national hero, our national identity and all things good and true - but it’s also a ridiculous investment. Think about it, this building is gonna be built in a lot SANDWICHED behind the former Jai-Alai lot FORTY meters AWAY from Taft Avenue itself (look at the driveway photo below and the drawing in their facebook page). WHOA. Think about the traffic, the congestion and the inconvenience of going through that driveway just to get to the road.
Not only that, for those who SPEND more for the front units facing the park, your window view is NOT assured at all. You are in a sandwich property. If the property fronting the Terror of Manila is developed, your view will be immediately taken away. There goes your extra investment. Poof.
And finally, for Filipino-Chinese investors, why buy there when it faces west directly towards a GRAVE (Rizal Monument) and the massacre grounds of the HK hostage crisis of 2010? It’s a feng shui disaster.
Seriously, this project is a perfect storm of BAD ideas - both in this world and the next.
I implore fellow Filipinos to speak up about this and have DMCI rethink this project. Not only are we on to them but we refuse to have ANYTHING that they build ruin the sanctity of the Rizal sightline forever.
