There was a time when traffic was bad because it was nearing Christmas. Or there was road work. Or there was an accident. A sudden downpour, perhaps, that triggered flash floods on many streets.
Perhaps it was payday, and the big malls were having their respective midnight sales.
These days, traffic is bad, period. At any time of the day, and practically at every corner of the metropolis, major and minor thoroughfares alike.
No explanation is in order. The volume of vehicles is just too overwhelming, the ineptitude of traffic managers even more so.
And the administration says, be thankful! This is progress. Look, the average wage-earner is able to take out a loan to purchase his own car!
Easy for those in power to say. After all, they do not have to go through hell every day.
The alternative looks grim. Try hopping out of your bus or car to take the train to work because you’re running late–and the so-called pass you can show your boss is too laughable a concept to be taken seriously, anyway. You will soon regret it because then you will find yourself in a sea of human bodies, exhausted and drained even before they log into their offices.
And do not discount the possibility of the train breaking down in the middle of your journey, and you having to walk on the railway, in between stations.
If you can think ahead and tap away to find a ride through your application-based transport provider, hurry up. The government is clamping down on it soon, because, it turns out, it wants to launch its own version of the network. That’s assuming it can perform as efficiently as those already in the market–something we seriously doubt.
Through all these daily difficulties, the ordinary Filipino worker who simply wants to earn a living and attain some measure of comfort and optimism finds himself wondering if this is the straight path promised by the administration when it first took office five years ago.
The exhausted, underpaid, oft-inconvenienced middle-class worker–which according to a study by the Philippine Institute of Development Studies carries a disproportionate portion of the tax burden–deserves so much more from a government that prides itself in treading a straight path, supposedly of righteousness and honesty.
But what’s the use of a straight path when you don’t know where it’s leading?
What’s to be treasured about traversing a straight line when you can’t even move forward because of numerous obstacles that constrain you from taking the next step?
And yet, as he endorsed his anointed one for next year’s elections, the President promises it will be more of the same, a continuation of what we "enjoy” right now–really, doublespeak, hypocrisy, self-righteousness and self-congratulation, and gaping inequality for the rest of us.
The thought of getting stuck some more is too repulsive for those who simply want to work hard and do little things here and there to contribute to society. No, thanks–we don’t want more of the same.
If all else fails, we’re getting out of the vehicle, and we’re walking to our individual destinations.//
