What do I hope to achieve?
By: Thea Espidol
As someone who lived in Mandaluyong City for all of my life, I would say that I got to be one of the lucky ones, what with living in the supposed middle of the Metro. And consequently, it is the same city wherein we were tasked to focus this semester on for our PA 162 class.
And while I admittedly consider myself lucky, unfortunately, not everyone could say the same thing. Particularly, with the living conditions of everyone else– the hours spent on traffic, the hassle of commuting, the expensive basic commodities... the list could go on and on.
To add to this, our chosen project for this particular class is the Estrella-Pantaleon Bridge. It is the main connection of Mandaluyong City to Makati City. And recently, it had been closed down for widening and expansion, yet again.
Making things worse, this reconstruction of the bridge had been delayed for a few months already and is no close to its completion. Additionally, the citizens of both cities have been greatly affected with the sudden change and little information dissemination.
At the end of the day, what I hope to achieve is accountability and consultation from local government officials with their constituents. I hope to become a trailblazer and an agent for change in involving citizens and stakeholders more.