ILOILO City – The city government has inaugurated a new children’s playground at Plaza Libertad in the City Proper.
According to Mayor Jose Espinosa III, he aims to make public plazas child-friendly zones.
“We want our plazas to be centers of children’s activities again,” he stressed, citing “tradition” that families usually spend bonding time in plazas on weekends.
The mayor noted that in recent years the city’s public plazas degenerated into unkempt and unregulated flea markets.
“Gasakit gid buot ko nga amo na ang natabo. So sang ako na ang mayor gintinguhaan ta gid nga ma-improve ang plaza ta,” said Espinosa.
In October 2017 on his first month as mayor by operation of law (he was elected vice mayor in 2016 and became the mayor next year after the Office of the Ombudsman dismissed from the service then mayor Jed Patrick Mabilog for unexplained wealth), Espinosa banned ukay-ukay stalls from public plazas.
“Subong wala na ukay-ukay. Limpyo na. We also installed brighter lampposts so that at night people can still safely go to our plazas,” said Espinosa.
Next week, the city government will inaugurate children’s playgrounds at the Molo public plaza, Jaro and La Paz plazas.
The flooring of the children’s playgrounds would be rubberized.
Safety officers would also be posted in the playgrounds.
According to City Engineer Roberto Divinagracia, the playground materials were imported./PN
