The word “resignation” is a funny thing. On one hand, it refers to the act of “giving up a position,” such as that recent rash of courtesy resignations from the Marcos Jr. Cabinet. On the other, it means accepting something — the inevitable, the unchangeable, the objectionable.

Resignation is a word that signifies both leaving and embracing but, in the life of Filipinos, the latter is more familiar.

In our country, you see, staying in a cushy government job for as long as possible is more common, and if that is no longer allowed by law, then the bloodline continues it, whether or not they can do the job, never mind if there are others who are infinitely more qualified.

Resigning from an influential, likely lucrative public post is, thus, rarer than a smooth portion of the Epifanio De Los Santos (EDSA) highway — that long, hard road filled with stories of our people.

Just the acronym EDSA carries much meaning — to some it is hope, to most it is a headache. As the joke goes, EDSA means hope — hope for less traffic.

Figures from a quick Google search reveal that some “437,873 vehicles pass through EDSA daily, exceeding its carrying capacity of 250,000.”

Meanwhile, the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) reports higher numbers, “citing over 464,000 vehicles in a single day.”

If one could simply solidify the sheer number of disappointed sighs that float over EDSA — a highway that carried a powerful uprising, only to see it fall into decay — and use that to fill its holes and hollows, then it wouldn’t be such an embarrassment to visiting dignitaries who must endure its uncomfortable bumps and occasional floods. Or to the Filipinos themselves, who use it every day!

Yet as many symbols go, this one lost its meaning after “a parade of corrupt, incompetent, shortsighted leaders” followed the fall of a dictator, as one broadsheet writer scathingly remarked.

Enough is enough. President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. finally erupted.Resign, Cabinet people, and the rest should take it as a warning, he seemed to say. As for the road that saw the fall of his father, Marcos Jr. had this to say: Rebuild… “once and for all,” to quote the directive, as related by Public Works and Highways Secretary Manuel Bonoan.

The Department of Public Works and Highways, Department of Transportation, and MMDA faced the media last Monday to finally disclose their plans to rehabilitate the sorry stretch of a highway, targeting its completion by 2027.

Motorists and commuters immediately resigned themselves to the upcoming inconveniences come 16 June, when a new odd-even scheme will replace the regular car coding rules. And what will be done to the 23.8-kilometer EDSA?

Not to fix parts of it, or slather some gunk in holes that get washed away by strong rain or the passing of heavy vehicles. No, the DPWH says, it will be to “rebuild and reconstruct the entire EDSA.”

The DPWH chief lauded the fact that EDSA had “outlived both its design capacity and structural design,” perhaps from “multiple reblocking efforts in the past” that were admittedly “temporary fixes.”

And therein lies a flaw we sometimes fail to see — if a major road like EDSA can be treated this way over the decades it has served the people, on top of its significance in our history, then what does it say about our system, our culture, and our leadership?

If Marcos Jr. is able to see this through, the rehabilitation of EDSA will carry a different meaning — one where expectations of failure and inconsistency will fall, and the rise of real hope begins.