To keep shoppers in Divisoria safe at night, especially this Christmas season, Manila Mayor Joseph “Erap” Estrada has ordered the installation of more streetlights in the popular market district.
Estrada personally led on Wednesday the inauguration of 137 brand new lampposts along Benavidez and Asuncion streets, two of the busiest vending areas in Divisoria that are now swarming with early Christmas shoppers.
“I want everyone to be safe, most of all the shoppers who go to Divisoria during nighttime, that’s why we’re putting up more street lights. And these new street lights will help beautify Divisoria,” Estrada said.
With less than a month before Christmas, the mayor said the city will be installing more street lights in Divisoria to complement the security measures being put in place there for the holiday rush.
Engineer Lorenzo Alconera, head of the City Electrical Division, said the mayor had observed that the old lampposts at the center islands along Benavidez and Asuncion, totaling around 1.5 kilometers in length, were not enough to fully illuminate the streets.
“If you’ll go there at night, you will see the difference. Sobrang maliwanag na. This is what the mayor wants. We can say the people are now safer at nighttime,” Alconera said.
Since 2013, Estrada has embarked on a multimillion-peso street lighting program to light up the entire city, from major thoroughfares to barangay streets, as an anti-crime measure during nighttime and in continuance of his urban renewal and beautification program for the capital city.
Well-lit roads, the mayor pointed out, also help promote trade in commercial and tourist areas such as Malate and Ermita.
The city government has so far installed new lampposts along a total of 91.1 kilometers of streets worth over P100 million, with another P300 million budget being prepared for the next phase of the street lighting initiative.
These include major roads such as Dapitan, Moriones, Del Pilar, Mabini, Pedro Gil, Onyx, and Oroquieta, and portions of Roxas Boulevard, Taft Avenue, Vito Cruz, United Nations Avenue, and Quirino Avenue, among others.
In 2015, Estrada allocated P61 million for the project and P128 million more in 2016. Close to 2,000 LED lampposts have so far been installed throughout Manila.
The installation of street lights has drastically reduced street crimes throughout the city, particularly at night time, barangay officials have confirmed.