The Environment department’s project to beautify Manila Bay smacks of insensitivity to the people’s difficulties in coping with the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) and contradicts President Rodrigo Duterte’s vow to spend public money judiciously, particularly in this time of pandemic. No amount of excuses can justify the multimillion-peso rehabilitation project that includes covering a stretch of the baywalk on Roxas Boulevard with artificial white sand when around 5 million Filipinos just lost their jobs because of the community lockdown, at least 68,000 patients are fighting with Covid-19 and countless families can hardly make both ends meet. It is an insult to the intelligence of the Filipinos for Palace spokesman Harry Roque Jr. to say that having white sand on the coastline could help improve the public’s mental health as it would distract them from the global health crisis.

Valderama, T. C. (2020, September 7). Unsettling justifications for 'Boracay' on Manila Bay project. The Manila Times, p. A4.