EDITORS DESK
Some weeks ago, actor-turned-lawmaker, Congressman Richard Gomez, tweeted his frustrations about Metro Manila traffic.
In the now-deleted, but still widely circulated tweet, he complained about the heavy traffic and how long he has already been stuck in his car. He suggested the bus lane be opened up to private vehicles during peak hours to ease congestion.
By this point, it’s already clear he’s learned his lesson about complaining about traffic, especially public transportation, particularly when he has the benefit of having his own vehicle and driver to get places. We can only hope he also soon learns that tweets — even after they’re deleted — can still be used against him. There’s no “back” or “undo” button when it comes to what you say while you’re a public servant.
Out of sight, out of mind
Back to the point of checking privilege, it still seems to be the main obstacle to proper legislation. After all, how can lawmakers make truly effective changes in public transportation if they themselves don’t experience it? How can government services be made more efficient when they have staff to take care of the drudgery of filing taxes, making contributions, and meeting other obligations for government services? How can public education or healthcare be improved when they always choose the private alternative for their own family? How can any of these services be improved if they are all out of sight and out of mind of the very people who have the power to change it?
There’s no better teacher than actual experience. It’s a shame that very few realize the actual value of that.
Experience is the teacher
In the past, there were a few who were brave enough to take up the challenge. Sen. Grace Poe once rode the MRT to personally experience what it was like. Former VP, Leni Robredo, was known to take the provincial bus every now and then. Presidential spokesperson,Sal Panelo, also famously tried to commute to work, only for the experience to be cut short after he was beginning to run late. Even former Toyota Motor Philippines President, Atsuhiro Okamoto, who is in charge of selling private vehicles, famously rode jeepneys on one of his first few days on the job to get to know the local culture.
While these attempts are likely more PR stunt than genuine attempt to commiserate with the people, it’s something more ought to attempt. After all, nothing shows you just how miserable the commuting experience is than a long, slow-moving line up steep stairs; not enough ticket counters for all the commuters; an over-crowded platform; and waiting for three or four trains or buses to pass before you finally get a chance to ride.
A mentor once told me, “Never argue with an idiot because they will drag you down to their level and beat you with experience.” I used to find it funny because in the context of cars, it meant having to listen to some backyard mechanic insist on a duct tape fix for a problem being more effective than one prescribed by a workshop manual, written by the people who actually built the car. But while the solution may be laughable, one can’t deny it gets the job done, and is cheap, convenient, and relatively efficient.
In the context of public services, perhaps this joke (or sagely advice) should be heard with more earnestness. The key words they should focus on are ‘down to their level’ and ‘experience.’ After all, modern public transportation solutions like modern PUVs, trains, and bus lanes may tick all the boxes on paper, but there’s still some debate whether they actually solve problems in the real world.
More problems than answers
If you remember, the MRT was conceived as a light rail transit, with light being the key word. Today, it can hardly be called light with the sheer volume of passengers using it. With the bus lane, EDSA buses are no more than a ground level parallel transport option to the train, with nearly the same stops. UV Express vehicles were conceived as smaller point-to-point transport, but ended up becoming glorified aircon jeepneys, stopping every kilometer to pick up passengers. Very few of these solutions ended up solving the problems they were originally designed for.
Perhaps it’s because they were conceived by department secretaries and lawmakers that have not used public transportation recently. They never had to get from Makati to Fairview or vice versa in the peak of rush hour, with a limited budget. Nor did they consider how crafty some of these operators may be in finding loopholes. Had they attempted to sample the public transport measures they proposed, they might have seen first-hand whether it’s a boon or bust, and hopefully provide a proper fix or alternate solution, based on experience.
(Iñigo S. Roces is the Motoring Editor of Manila Bulletin)