We don’t have a lot of public parks here in the Philippines, but there is the iconic Capitol Lagoon in Bacolod City which has been getting a bit more attention from the provincial government over the past few years.
With the attention and improvements, that public park has been a blessing for Negrenses, giving us a pocket of green space where commercial interests aren’t the primary consideration. Hopefully more local governments can find the ways, means and funds to develop and properly manage the few public parks that we have and maybe even somehow add some more as our towns and cities grow.
Because we don’t have a lot, Filipinos still don’t have much of a park culture, and the only way it can be encouraged is for the parks to be public-friendly. This means parks have to be clean, safe, and well maintained at all times, which shouldn’t be that hard to do, as long as the parks are managed decently.
Although most bad park experiences are usually caused by other park goers, such as those who can’t keep it clean, or those who make it feel unsafe and unruly, and are basically inconsiderate pricks; such experiences can’t be that bad because poor behavior from other people isn’t surprising anymore.
However, if a bad experience stems from the people supposedly taking care of the public park, then that is another story.
One such story that was told to me happened a couple of weeks ago, involving a group of preschool kids, their teachers, and guardians, who went on a field trip to the Negros Forest Park and decided to end their activity with some snacks at the Capitol Lagoon park.
The group of about 20, composed of very young preschool kids, their teachers, and some senior citizen guardians on “apostolic” duty, crossed South Capitol road from the Negros Forest area, thinking they could enter the park there. However, a security guard stopped them, telling them they could only enter the public park from the North Capitol Road side.
They pleaded with the guard to let them through, as taking the other entrance would mean making their group walk all the way around, and it was already past 10am. But rules are apparently rules, and Mr. Guard wouldn’t budge, so they all carried their stuff, which included picnic banigs and snacks, aside from the kids, to the other side of the park.
After lugging all their stuff to the proper entrance, the group then prepared to have their snacks in the park, which was supposed to be part of their field trip. But, as they were setting up their banigs, another park staff member told them they weren’t allowed there because they were going to be watering the plants and they were told to move their stuff and activity to the other end of the park. They appealed their case, pointing out that there was no watering being done at their spot, and that they wouldn’t take 30 minutes to have their snacks. But the park guy wouldn’t budge, just like the guard who wouldn’t let them in.
It was already past 10am, and aside from the scorching heat of the sun, the heads of the adults who were just trying to find a shady spot in a public park to have snacks with some preschool kids were starting to sizzle. Mr. Park Ranger wasn’t going to let them have their picnic at that spot because a gardener that was not yet around was apparently scheduled to water the plants. The guy may have been simply doing his job enforcing park rules, but what made the temperatures rise was the gruff demeanor certainly made it clear to the group who was the boss of that part of the park at that time of day.
Utterly defeated by the park’s wonky rules and the attitude of the people in charge of implementation, the group gathered their stuff and then dragged the kids and their stuff to the special part of the park that they were allowed to use during that heatstrokish time of day. They ended up at the furthest corner of the park from where they initially tried to enter, when they still thought going to the park would be a good idea. There, they finally had their picnic after being able to sit down, open their snacks, eat and drink, all that within 15 minutes, before any watering boy would’ve gotten to them. At that point, the sun was already even higher up in the sky, which meant they had lost all appetite for hanging out at the park, so they packed up and left.
After that experience, they don’t know if they’ll ever come back to that park on a whim gain, and after hearing their story, it’s hard not to blame them.
Were they just at the wrong place at the wrong time? Hopefully the people in charge of our parks are still working on making those places better so more of us can spend more time in such places.*
