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Restore Ilog Pasig Many years ago, as the elderly passed by Guadalupe Bridge from Bonifacio or from Buendia, they can’t help but look at the once thriving and beautiful Pasig River or Ilog Pasig and feel a combination of sadness and anger well up inside them. The once navigable Pasig River flows through the city, dividing it into two sections, with Intramuros (the old Spanish walled city) and Ermita (the site of most government buildings and tourist hotels) on the south bank, and the “newer” section (which includes the commercial district, many congested slum areas, and the Chinese quarter in Binondo) on the northern bank. Malacañang Palace, the presidential mansion, is located along Pasig River. Before pollution virtually extinguished aquatic life, the whole 25 km of the Pasig River between Laguna de Bay and Manila Bay served as a habitat for 25 varieties of fish and 13 different types of aquatic plant. Today, there are only six species of fish and two types of plants left that can tolerate the polluted water. By the 1980’s there was no more river tourism, fishing and swimming were no longer permissible. Ilog Pasig became a dirty, stinking open-air sewer. The banks of the Pasig