The controversial Kamuning footbridge along EDSA gained renewed attention after a high-ranking diplomat criticized it on Twitter.
Consul General Dirk Janssen of the Consulate General of the Netherlands in San Francisco posted a picture of the footbridge that went viral before.
“There is no better way to make it clear to pedestrians that they don’t matter,” a translated version of his tweet reads.
It was posted last Sunday and has since earned more than 3,200 likes so far.
No hay mejor manera de dejar claro a los peatones que no importan. pic.twitter.com/Qq37ep2YLu
— Dirk Janssen (@dirkjanjanssen) June 25, 2022
Janssen’s tweet caught the attention of some Filipino Twitter users such as statistician Peter Cayton.
“This is gaining international attention. Transport policymakers in the Philippines are heartless and have no regard for pedestrian and commuter rights, much less for human rights,” he wrote in response to the post.
“The sad thing: This was during the pre-pandemic period,” Cayton added.
“Mountaineering… it’s more fun in the Philippines,” another Twitter user said in response to Janssen’s tweet with a woozy face emoji.
“This picture from Manila is going international wtf,” commented a different Filipino.
“This is embarrassing. We are recognized internationally in a bad way,” another Pinoy originally wrote in Spanish.
Meanwhile, the picture that Janssen posted circulated on r/Philippines in November 2018 when a Reddit user shared it on the discussion website with the caption, “hmmmm.”
The photo can be traced to a Facebook user who described it as a “stairway to heaven” before due to its height.
The P10-million footbridge goes over the rails of the Metro Rail Transit-Line 3, with GMA-Kamuning Station as its nearest station.
The Metro Manila Development Authority said that the ten-meter high footbridge was constructed to make it safe for pedestrians to cross amid EDSA, one of the busiest roads in the country.
The area, according to the agency, was also among the top accident-prone areas in the metro.
The MMDA added that the footbridge was also built that way to adhere to the MRT’s five-meter clearance policy on infrastructures built near its train power lines.
A month after its construction, the structure was redesigned with a second landing platform to make it easier for commuters to climb the stairs.
In 2019, two mountain hikers jokingly climbed the footbridge in climbing gear for fun.
