Next, public transport

Next, public transport | Daily Tribune

Like the disastrous floods, the nightmarish urban commute is another public disaster deserving our rage.

But while the outrage over failed flood control projects led to the disgraceful toppling of political titans and criminal charges brought against avaricious contractors and corrupt public works officials, nothing politically dramatic has been similarly done about the commuters’ plight.

Considering that Mr. Marcos Jr. is so far ahead of the political curve in dealing with the flood control scams, shouldn’t he now go even further with other equally pressing public concerns?

If Mr. Marcos Jr. were to immediately decide to do so, the timing would be perfect.

By any yardstick, the ruling political class is currently badly wounded, practically immobilized from doing anything that would placate the outraged public.

So much so that the morally bankrupt political ruling class would do anything, even follow punitive orders to take public transportation for their remaining pathetic public lives.

Forcing dispirited politicians to take public transport, in fact, is the only political masterstroke left for finally solving the commuting woes, advocates of public transport have been saying for decades.

All of these came to mind in the past days after senior officials at the Department of Transportation were ordered to take public transportation at least once a week.

Ordered by acting Transport Secretary Banoy Lopez — who described his recent harrowing public transportation experience as like going into a war zone — senior DoTr officials must now take tricycles, jeepneys, UV Express vans, motorcycle taxis, the EDSA busway, the MRT-3, LRT-1 and LRT-2 in going to work.

Senior officials are also required to submit weekly reports, along with proof like time-stamped photos and tickets, to show they are following the order.

In his memo, Lopez said his order was to give his underlings “first-hand experience of various public transport systems to better understand the daily struggles of commuters.” He virtually admitted that transport officials badly lacked real-world perceptions of the complex public transit ecosystem.

But while forcing transportation bigwigs to queue with the sweltering masses to buy a single-journey train card makes for a humbled bureaucrat, wouldn’t this be similarly chastening to a blowhard lawmaker forced to do the same?

Like our snooty bureaucrats, our haughty, but oh so corrupt, lawmakers likely haven’t caught a jeepney, bus or train ride in years, except for a photo opportunity.

In fact, the default transportation experience of our ne’er-do-well lawmakers and blinkered bureaucrats is driving a car or having a driver, testifying to their cluelessness about commuter struggles and to their narrow view that traffic is the only transportation issue.

Worse, they even advertise these facts by arrogantly zooming through traffic-choked streets with police escorts!

So, if we force elected officials, either by law or political expediency, to take public transport, even on official errands, it is possible our public transport system would somehow miraculously work.

Forcing them to take public transport would also safeguard our hard-earned taxes and save money for this cash-strapped and debt-contracting government.

In fact, despite a diligent search, I haven’t come across any official report regarding the transportation expenses recklessly gobbled up by Filipino lawmakers and bureaucrats.

The only reference I had on hand was when, decades ago, a similarly cash-strapped British government, in order to regain the public trust, banned ministers from excessively using official limousines.

At any rate, surely the transport expenses allotted to the politicians and bureaucrats must be in the scandalous billions!