MMDA’s Mini Footbridge: The Weirdest Project in the World and the Truth Behind It
A photo of what appears to be a mini footbridge, dubbed as “MMDA’s mini footbridge”, is making rounds on social media.
A netizen posted the photo below on his Facebook captioned as, “MMDA mini foot bridge project at Quirino Grandstand. Mentioned as one of the ‘Weirdest Project in the World’. Only in the Philippines. We didn’t only waste money, but it made us look dumb in the International Engineering Community.”
The photo has 5,000++ shares on Facebook but apparently, this mini footbridge is actually a part of the MMDA Children Road’s Safety Park located in Quirino Avenue, Manila.
Aside from being used as a footbridge to cross from one side to the other, it serves a bigger purpose, which is as a learning structure for kids. The park where this mini footbridge is located aims to teach the kids about basic road signs and safety. You can read about the opening of the park in 2012 here and see more photos of the park here.
After a few searches on Google, it appears that the photo was originally posted in 2012 on MMDA’s official Twitter account.
The tweet links to an Instagram post.
Furthermore, the person who originally took the photo, Atty. Yves Gonzales, has already reached out to said netizen to provide correct information about MMDA’s mini footbridge.
He posted on Facebook, “Since he disabled commenting on his post, I sent Mr. Nick ******* a Facebook message to correct his mistaken notions about the MMDA Children’s Park mini-footbridge. Thanks Elbert ****** for pointing out to me this ill-informed post.”
On his message, he said, “He Nick, I saw you reposted the photo I took of a footbridge inside the MMDA Children’s Park in Malate, and put a caption that isn’t reflective of the truth. This mini-footbridge, along with other miniature structures inside the park, are aimed at teaching young kids the value of following road rules. This is actually a good project of the MMDA (an agency I used to work for, full disclaimer), which several people have hailed as something other LGUs should emulate. Making it seem like it’s a “weird” project or something that makes us look “dumb” without knowing the full context and story behind the photo, is quite misleading. We are all entitled to our own opinions, but not our own facts. Thanks.”
We hope this cleared things up regarding MMDA’s mini footbridge.
What do you think of MMDA’s efforts to educate the kids about road rules and safety?
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MMDA’s Mini Footbridge: The Weirdest Project in the World and the Truth Behind It
