MEDIUM RARE
Nida left her house in Marikina at 7 a.m. for work in Intramuros, Manila, boarding her faithful motorcycle and hoping for a smooth, quick ride. She reached her destination two hours later.
“To think I was on a bike!” she exclaimed in exasperation. What if she had been in a four-wheel car instead?
The so-called Christmas traffic is sure to worsen before next Christmas ’23. And that’s not a forecast. From January to October 2022, the car manufacturing industry had nothing but great sales figures to report. The “pent-up demand” for cars, as a reporter put it, resulted in the sale of 315,337 units, a 31 percent growth from last year. And where do you think the bulk of those cars ended up?
The time has come for Metro Manilans to ask their LGU and Malacañang if they have the ghost of a long-range plan to decongest the metro, transfer the capital to someplace more comfortable; at the very least prepare an aggressive, strategic, dynamic version of “balik probinsiya” for the good of all, specially citizens of the future before they cry, “Stop the world, I wanna get off!” In the middle of the Duterte administration, the Department of Transportation under Art Tugade saw the need, nay, the wisdom to move DOTr to Clark City. We haven’t heard employees complaining, so there’s probably virtue in such a sweeping move.
As it is now, everywhere you turn in the metro, there are l-o-n-g queues waiting for a magic minute to end their agony, day and night. The daily commute is a horror I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy. The airport is a permanent stress factor — take a look at the scowling faces of natives and foreigners when they land. To paraphrase Senator Grace Poe, of what use are our beautiful beaches if the airport is the first and last thing to depress our visitors?
Without a motorcycle, how many manhours to get to work on time? Hi-tech or no-tech, how long to wait for your passport? to receive a plastic card attesting to your identity and nationality? to acquire the license plate for your bike? While we’re at it, take a look at our overcrowded jails, a crime against criminals.