Daang matuwid or daang masikip? (1)
RE-ENTRY. Before I could bellyache about Metro Manila traffic, my deep-throat source Gabby Dolor gave a first-person account of the mayhem on EDSA when INC flexed its muscles. His score: DOJ Secretary Leila de Lima, 1; INC, 0.
In chess parlance, Gabby said INC committed a tactical blunder by holding its protest rally on EDSA – snarling traffic, piling up garbage, and exasperating the populace and officialdom.
INC could have spared Metro Manila if it only held its rally at its 100,000 capacity Philippine Arena to send its message to DOJ and government officials. Instead, irate netizens now watch the final denouement of the INC imbroglio.
BTW, Erap, and Pasig Mayor Abalos also get no points for permitting the protest rally; while Cebu proved more sensible and canceled the permit.
GIVEN. NEDA chief Arsenio Balisacan, citing a JICA study, says PH loses 2.4 billion daily in potential income due to traffic congestion. Then there’s the prejudice to the quality of life – the missed breakfast with kids or dinner with family. (That’s not taking into account what happens during the monsoon and floods.)
Returning from “apostolic mission” visiting grandchildren, I miss the freedom of autobahns and the disciplined traffic where it is writ in a famous tombstone that a German driver died for his right-of-way.
SIGH. I am of the lost generation, when EDSA was just Hi-way 54 and I could read my physics book on the bus from Parañaque to Cubao, catch the Marikina bus to Loyola Heights, and be on time for the first class.
We have grown exponentially; but unfortunately nobody among succeeding administrations addressed traffic management. (Well, maybe Marcos did the LRT, and Fidel Ramos did the C-5.)
PROBLEM: But traffic routing hasn’t advanced much since liberation (post WW 2) when it ran Manila-Quiapo-Blumentritt. When Marcos took advantage of martial law to introduce bus stops, every bus stopped at the same bus stop…and each bus raced to the next bus stop.
Nobody among our planners understood buses to have (a) different routes, and (b) different bus stops.
EUREKA (MISSED). At the hopeful inception of President Benigno Aquino III, banker Ramon Sy advised prioritizing traffic to give a fillip and a tempo that this country is moving. Unfortunately, the advice didn’t percolate up.
Instead, we got the “No Wang-Wang” policy.
Oh, ambulances are exempted, and you hear them. But Gary Lising swears that if he is ever in an ambulance, he would say his Hail Mary’s because wang-wangs don’t part the waters, and he would more likely arrive DOA.
Anyway, Gary is sure that when he dies, he will go to heaven – because he has spent all his life in Manila’s traffic purgatory.
PNoy tapped Cabinet Secretary Jose Rene Almendras as Traffic Czar and the Highway Patrol Group to remove the six choke points on EDSA. (Leading from behind are MMDA, LTO, and LTFRB.) What can we expect now, overnight, after the government sat on it for the first 5 years?
BTW, does MMDA Chairman Francis Tolentino boost the LP senatorial candidates at Metro Manila miting de abanse… if he is lightning rod to why traffic isn’t moving here?
REMINDER. Weren’t they supposed to build new skyways and other major projects to prepare Metro Manila for the APEC? If we can’t meet target deadlines for international hosting, what can we expect?
Biblical quote for daily commuter: “The road to hell is paved with good intentions.”
Enough of cursing the darkness. We try lighting a candle next Wednesday, 16 Sept.? FEEDBACK: joseabetozaide@gmail.com