GOVT OFFICIALS DON’T COMMUTE, SO WHAT CAN WE EXPECT?
LATE last year on October 11, then Palace spokesman Salvador Panelo faced up to the challenge of commuting from his child’s residence in New Manila to his place of work at Malacañang. This was after he had the gall to tell commuters to wake up much earlier so as to avoid arriving late to work, instead of complaining about the horrible traffic in Metro Manila.
About three-and-a-half hours later — after 15 minutes of walking, riding four jeepneys and getting on a motorcycle — he arrived at around 8.45 a.m., just as government offices opened. A quick use of the Waze app will show that the actual travel time on a private vehicle, during this general community quarantine (GCQ), takes someone only 19 minutes from Point A to Point B. And even on a “nonpandemic” day when traffic is maybe thrice slower, Mr. Panelo does not have to, quoting his very own words, “wake up much earlier.”
Imagine his situation as a commuter on the first of June when Metro Manila’s quarantine status was lifted to GCQ and some workers were allowed to start returning to their jobs. At that time, there were only a few buses plying the main roads and, as anecdotal evidence showed, Mr. Panelo would have waited up to six hours to get to Malacañang and another six most likely to get home. So if I were in his shoes, I could tell him along with the other commuters not to sleep at all so that they would not be late for work.
Fast-forward to today when “Phase 2” of the GCQ transportation guidelines was
“partially” implemented. “Phase 2” is in quotation marks because I cannot fathom if those responsible needed more time to fine-tune their policies or if they did not maximize their time at all to have carefully thought out plans from the get-go; ditto for “partially” since, apparently, neither UV Express nor conventional jeepney drivers were allowed to operate because it turned out that only modernized jeeps were given permission to be on the road.
Expectedly, I have heard from the news about commuters who waited for three hours or more for the next bus or jeep because they still cannot be filled to capacity. (And if Mr. Panelo were to comment on this, he would tell them to be grateful that they did not have to wait twice as long.) I have also seen on TV the obvious lack of physical distancing when lucky passengers got off and the unlucky ones ran amok to grab a seat inside. Even conductors, despite managing to shoot at their foreheads, could no longer look at each of the results of their temperature scans because everyone was in a hurry to get in the public vehicle.
Going back to Mr. Panelo, what was the point of his commuting? Was it to remind Filipinos the importance of waking up earlier every day of the week even when he only did it once that year? Or was it truly, according to the political party Anakbayan spokesman Alex Danday, a mere photo opportunity? And the fact that it took him many hours to commute, did that even provide some sort of a catalyst for our decision-makers to finally overhaul our transportation system?
Is it irresponsibility or apathy on the part of our government officials specifically for failing to make the everyday commute of Filipinos much easier, or at the least, less difficult — especially at this time of a coronavirus pandemic? I do not know of any government official who struggles to commute to and from work, but I do know that the answer to that last question is both.