Why the Intramuros Golf Course Has to Give Way to National Progress

If you’re working in the government or old enough to go into deep thoughts about your country, this thing will nag you from the moment you wake up down to your REM sleep - that is national progress.

And before you get more confused, let me remind you that numbers don’t lie. So as all things that are empirical.

So….let’s start?

National progress is making moves to optimize the present resources to help achieve the sustained development of the country. That given the natural and cultural wealth of the nation, those who make the decisions will make everything possible to achieve an ideal level of development and wealth generation for generations to follow.

Let’s cut to the chase and focus the spotlight to the golf course in Intramuros.

You know the reality - that very few people - that would be the golfers and a few hundred employees, represent the economic justification of the golf course. And you know how the numbers would explode when the 23-hectare (yes, 230,000 square meters) golf course is repurposed into a highly valuable urban service center.

Yup, from a few million pesos with huge management cost can turn into billions of pesos possibility that could probably increase the GDP by a whole number. The numbers that need not be deeply imagined do not lie.

The potentials

23 hectares is a huge footprint that can attract boutique hotels, cafes, restaurants, shops and hundreds of other businesses. Imagine the thousands of jobs, the hundreds of millions of tax revenues, the revitalization of this part of Manila, and the millions of tourists that could enjoy as well as contribute to the value of the site. The development cost would be minimal and yet the returns can be mind boggling.

Here’s one thing that could come as a surprise to you. The golf course actually serves as a limiting feature that functions as an anti-development fence (and yes, it has a fence). The metal obstacles and the current use of the area deter people from appreciating the value of the site. Imagine if the golf course is repurposed into something more accessible and appreciable.

The Issues

Of course there will be issues that will come from the culturati, the environmental purists, the clueless advocates, and the people who will lose their exclusive playgrounds. But these issues and concerns have the appropriate responses. Let’s look at them one by one.

The historical and cultural value of Intramuros will be desecrated

The main response is that the golf course sits on a former moat. And that moat was buried with soil and turned into a golf course. So no desecration will happen as long as the redevelopment is confined in the currently manicured grassland.

To mitigate the potential visual impact to the walls of intramuros, no structure should be built higher than the wall, or ensure that the height of new structures should be two meters below the top of the walls. A buffer zone with no permanent structure should be established and made into a trail or pathway instead.

The environmental value of the golf course will be affected.

The answer to that is —- surface area. A single tree that is made part of the landscaping could have the equivalent surface area of probably 2,000 square meters of grass. There’s more oxygen in trees than a single layer of grass.

The golf tourism value of the Philippines will be negatively affected.

Just look at the numbers you can come up with. No matter how many times you make the computation, as long as you don’t cheat, the answers will always be the same. The economic transformation and progress cannot be denied.

Cautionary Moves

Actually, I bet that this idea is not unique and i won’t be surprised if there are already moves to sell out the territory to the private sector. And therein lies the fly on top of the carrot cake.

The private player will always try to maximize what it can take. That’s a given. The government decision makers will have to work doubly hard to ensure that the country and the Filipinos will not get the short end of the stick.

So these are some of the things that should be considered if this thing becomes an item on the negotiation table:

No absolute agreement. The value of things will change and economic opportunities will crop up making the government a loser even in the short term.

The contract should not be limited to the property footprint. Just look at how the Ayalas manage their commercial areas and their partners.

Growth (revenue) should be parallel. Not a win-lose partnership.

Open spaces. Open spaces (repeat 10x). Wide sidewalks. Parking spaces (make that solar roof parking spaces). Green landscape. Maximum number of trees. Optimum development. Get rid of the metal fences. Connect and make seamless movement with other sites - inside Intramuros, Rizal Park, the museums, mehan garden, Manila City Hall, Metropolitan Theater, Arroceros Park, Pasig River, across the Pasig River. My gulay! The potential is huge!

Now, you have an assignment dear reader. Do the numbers and keep this possibility in mind, and keep it alive. Because one reality is it may never happen in our lifetime. But who knows, somebody who has the mindset of the Emir of Dubai could suddenly emerge and make this imagination into a reality while we’re all alive.

And when you reach this part, you have now realized that national progress should be our guiding element in laying the groundwork for the next generations.