Turning point
SAL Panelo’s “novelty” commute, Art Tugade’s refusal to commute, and Celine Pialago’s pathetic cyberlibel suit against Barurot make it crystal-clear: the Duterte regime is so separated from our daily reality regarding the mass transport crisis.
Panelo of course rejects any claim that there’s a crisis. After all, he says, people still manage to get to school or work. And, echoing the previous regime’s anger-inducing words: “People just have to get up early.”
It took him four hours to commute from Marikina to Malacanang, and with initial help from ninja cops. He could’ve asked Anakbayan spokesperson Alex Danday to join him so they could talk about the mass transport crisis, but he didn’t. It was a mere joyride for him, this daily hell for commuters.
Tugade – the absolutely greatest transport secretary ever and alter-ego of the best president in the solar system – has been mostly quiet, refusing to accept Anakbayan’s commute challenge. He has to keep quiet so people won’t ask him what the hell he has been focusing on for the past three years. By making any noise, people would know how he has prioritized Big Business, car manufacturers, private car owners, banks and loan sharks. And by the way, he has sought to kill off our dependable jeepneys nationwide.
Pialago meanwhile has been the budget Mocha Uson of the season. She has sued what are obviously satirical social media accounts Barurot and Pinoy Laugh whose offense is to poke fun at official incompetence and arrogance. The fury of the people of Metro Manila and the rest of the country at her may not pass away, after she humiliated the nation’s hardworking jeepney drivers and their legitimate demands. With her cyberlibel suit, the MMDA spokesperson will forever tie her name with Barurot and Pinoy Laugh in the annals of Philippine court records.
The President’s ardent defenders on this issue are a tiny few. And it is pretty understandable. Because in their feeble minds, any criticism against the President is destabilization or a threat to Duterte. But of course, the mass transport crisis is so real, it affects everyone in Metro Manila and nearby provinces. Nobody is saying Duterte caused this crisis. What everybody is saying is that Duterte has not solved it, refuses to solve it, or made it undeniably worse.
Who was the candidate who rode on MRT commuters’ anger in the 2016 by offering to help them? Who was the president who wildly ordered to shorten the Cubao-to-Makati to five minutes in response to commuter complaints? Who else but Rodrigo Duterte. Panelo, Tugade and Pialago cannot make the public forget Duterte’s promises — or the daily via crucis to work and school.
The President’s trolls are trapped in the 2016 campaign period. They insist on blaming the previous regime for everything. But Duterte has been president since June 30, 2016. He has held all the power to undo the past errors but he has not. Neither has he implemented any solutions to reduce commuters’ unnecessary hardships. He has upheld the unfair MRT and LRT agreements with Big Business. He has not rolled back train fares after the past regime’s fare hikes. He has not dispatched any new trains. He has continued the past regime’s plan to phase out jeepneys in favor of car manufacturers, banks, and loan sharks. Instead of upgrading and improving the PNR, the Duterte regime’s budget is zero.
Commuters everywhere view mass transport as an essential state obligation. We don’t ask for free rides. We merely ask for affordable, quick, reliable, and safe ride to school or work in public utility buses, jeepneys, and trains. There is a crisis because the Duterte administration has failed to improve mass transport just like past regimes. Worse, the regime offers the wrong solutions beneficial only to Big Business, private car owners, and corrupt officials. At its worst, the talking heads refuse to acknowledge the problem.
And then, we hear the Duterte regime planning to acquire an expensive jet for the use of the President and top officials. There’s money for a jet, but no money for jeepney drivers. There are instant solutions for top officials, but LRT2 commuters have to wait for nine months for the LRT2 to become fully operational again.
Make no mistake: This is not a partisan issue. There are no separate lines for DDS, Yellows, or Reds in jeepneys, buses, and trains. People suffer together. This crisis does not discriminate based on politics. The President’s trolls commit a terrible mistake by even attempting to insult commuters and by shielding the President from accountability. Since he won the presidency as “the best president,” the problems he inherited has become his. It has been up to him to solve. Instead he made them worse.
Commuters have not been remiss in their civic obligation. We have made suggestions on how to improve traffic and to solve mass transport woes -- banning private cars on EDSA and on other major roads, nationalizing the MRT, dispatching new coaches for the MRT, undoing the previous MRT-LRT fare hikes, regularizing bus drivers and conductors, fully state-subsidized upgrading of jeepneys, upgrading the PNR, and requiring public officials to commute.
The dictionary defines crisis as “a stage in a sequence of events at which the trend of all future events, especially for better or for worse, is determined; turning point.” As a medical term, it is “the point in the course of a serious disease at which a decisive change occurs, leading either to recovery or to death.”
We are at a turning point. In the current sequence of events, Duterte regime officials have chosen to trivialize, instead of facing our problems head on. At a time when decisive change is needed, commuters know what to do because they already know what the Duterte regime has long chosen between recovery or death.