By Danilo P. Padua, PhD
Few days ago, my attention was caught by a post from the Public Information Office of La Trinidad about the Glass Walkway being privately-developed in the municipality. The post was a reaction to the viral reactions of netizens to the said walkway.
I am not deep into the social media world but I must admit that I am also drawn to it for a few minutes, almost daily. Sufficiently intrigued, I googled the facility under construction, and voila I got the picture of the controversy.
This is a free country, and everyone is entitled to his/her own opinion. I found though that many of the comments were off-tangent; they appear to be made on a first impulse which means that many people did not think even for a few seconds before their comments were made and posted.
The feedback section of a relevant post was peppered with negativity. The great consolation though is that there were a lot of constructive criticisms as well.
Mayor Roderick Awingan and Valred Olsim of the local tourism office were right in pointing out that individuals are guaranteed the right to do what they want with their properties provided they comply with: zoning regulations, safety standards, environmental requirements, and register their facilities. That goes without saying that they also need to follow all other relevant laws or guidelines.
One can not impose her/his own idea on a purely private initiative, but could only offer suggestions. Take it or leave it. Bashing has no place. If it is a government initiative involving peoples’ taxes then maybe being more assertive is welcome.
“Gaya-gaya, panget, no authenticity,” are commonplace bashers’ comments.
Let me tell you this. I visited the Madurodam in Netherlands decades ago. It was originally built in the 1950’s. This is a miniature city showcasing scale models of Dutch landmarks that includes windmills, historical sites, and others. It’s somehow the story of the country. It is a must-see when a tourist visits that country.
This park was copied by Catalunya en Miniatura in Spain in 1983. It is now one of the biggest miniature parks in the world, visited by around 4 million tourists each year. The Minimundos Park, in Austria, having about 150 scale models of structures around the world, and the mini-Europe in Belgium (which I visited too) are also spin-offs of Madurodam.
In Taiwan, there is a Wonder on World, which I happen to also visit in the late 1980’s, is a copy of the Minimundos. Then you have the Wonder of the World in China that came about in the early 1990’s. Both of these are showing scale models of famous structures/tourist sites around the world. These are attracting a lot of tourists yearly.
Talk of Disneyland that originated in the USA. It is now in France, China, Japan and Hongkong. So, who is gaya-gaya or fond of imitating others? It is not confined to us, Filipinos. It is done by all. It does not matter if the copy is exactly as found in the original or it digress towards the uglier side. What matters is that it is appreciated and visited by others. If some do not like it, they could simply ignore without bashing it.
It is always meaningful to copy others-but only good ones. That is why we have in the government institutions activities like benchmarking. That is, visit other institutions, on-going projects, programs, etc to study what can be adopted and implemented in one’s own institution
By copying the glassway in Danang, Vietnam, it does not mean that we are disrespecting the value of Filipino or Cordilleran creativity and uniqueness. It is actually challenging others to do much better by incorporating features that are uniquely ours, such as the native huts design. Strawberry, vegetables like cabbage, carrot, potato? They are not even present here before 1900. We just adapted them (“copied them if you wish”) from other countries.
The glass walkway is something that is new in La Trinidad that people can visit, although there is one now in Mt. Camisong in Itogon. It was a business decision by the private property owner that I have never met or even seen in picture.
Comments like: is it safe, traffic should be studied very well, is the structure not dangerous when it rains, is it child- and senior citizen-friendly, and the like are more useful that even a private developer could readily consider.
The private developer should be encouraged to go on with the project, consider some suggestions when practicable and properly consider what the good mayor and the tourism officer stated.
It pays to think what the American actor Denzel Washington said in an interview. “People who criticize you are those who are doing lesser than you” **
