Childish games

“Had emergency powers been granted, projects would have begun at least two years back and would have been finished by end of the year. What a waste of time and what suffering she has imposed on the public that she is supposed to serve!

Such juvenile games the progressive youth group Anakbayan plays, and all for scoring media publicity and worse, the Palace, represented by the presidential spokesman Salvador Panelo allowed himself to be sucked into such childish games, as he agreed to accept the challenge hurled at him to commute, just as ordinary commuters do, daily!

So, Panelo earlier claimed that there is no mass transport crisis in the metropolis.

Anakbayan, ever on the lookout for publicity, quickly dared Panelo to commute and when the challenge was accepted by the presidential spokesman, the youth group quickly took it a step further by setting up ground rules.

The ground rules, so say media reports, include having Panelo travel in the early morning, during the rush hour and without any special treatment and zero bodyguards to brush off the crowd.

Said the youth groups’ spokesman: “We are expecting the stint to be mere performance. To prevent this, the spokesman must commute not only for a single day, but for a whole week.”

Say Panelo rides a jeepney and the Light Rail Transit (LRT) on Friday to get to Malacañang, with or without media photographers — so what’s to stop other non-media passengers from taking photos from their cellphones and have them go viral? — what will that day or even a week-long commuter ride prove?

So Panelo commutes just like ordinary commuters do, so again, what does the presidential spokesman’s commuter ride prove? That there exists a commuter crisis or it does not exist?

Such a stupid exercise hardly proves the existence or non-existence of a commuter crisis once all the trains are up and running, which was what happened before the breakdowns occurred.

Breakdowns can perhaps be blamed on the previous yellow administration that came up with a lot of suspicious transport and service deals.

Such a silly dare it is, even when accepted, since a Panelo commuter ride is hardly proof that a commuter crisis exists. Delays and long lines can always be explained to temporary breakdowns in the LRT and other causes.

What may be needed perhaps are more efficient trains and even underground metro systems to ease the commuters’ long wait and longer travel time, as well as peripheral roads to be built for easing the daily nightmare suffered daily in broad daylight by public and private vehicles, and — it has to be mentioned — the nightmare of too many motorcycles zig-zagging Metro Manila streets.

What is a more insufferable crisis is the Metro Manila traffic, which has gotten worse as the weeks and months go by, and all because one senator who lords it over her committee and who has consistently refused to grant the Palace the emergency powers some years back to this day as a solution to the traffic crisis, probably wanting and waiting for the presidential boys to bow before her and beg for her grant the Palace the emergency powers it seeks.

The irony of the senator’s refusal to grant the Palace the emergency powers, in the hope of making Malacañang the ire of the long-suffering public, is that she hasn’t seemed to realize that it is she who has been making — and continues to make — everyone, whether taking a private car or commuting in public vehicles, suffer almost every hour of the day and will still be made to suffer for more years as she continues to put her foot down in granting any emergency powers to the Palace.

Already the Palace, too tired of seeking the powers it had earlier sought from the senator and her committee had religiously denied, has dumped the idea of seeking these powers.

Had emergency powers been granted, projects would have begun at least two years back and would have been finished by end of the year. What a waste of time and what suffering she has imposed on the public that she is supposed to serve!

The senator insists that there is no need for emergency powers and all that is needed to unclog the EDSA traffic is good and effective traffic management. Since when has this senator become such a traffic expert, given the intolerable daily traffic the Filipinos go through as she dawdles over what are needed to solve the traffic crisis?

She is all talk and has not even offered any solutions — nor, for that matter, has she even brought in as resource persons, traffic experts whom she could have tapped to provide emergency solutions without the grant of emergency powers.

But perhaps that really is being too much to ask from her. After all, the senator did offer a solution vein when such a solution is really not only a non-solution but also a hare-brained solution to ease commuter’s woes: She suggested that we should have business class coaches!

With such hare-brained solutions she offers that are hardly solutions, expect traffic and commuters’ woes to worsen in the next three years, thanks to the senator for engaging in such childish games.