How Would They Know?

The increase of gas prices leads to the rise of fares, and brings a heavier burden to the people. No amount of PR drama can solve this — only concrete action.

For the ordinary Juan Dela Cruz, it’s already hard enough to queue into long lines and get stuck in the middle of the traffic in the metro, but add to that the increase of fares and increase of basic commodities while the minimum wage remains the same — is unity still the answer? One is inevitable and I can already sense it from a mile away, is that there could be a PR stunt incoming to ‘sympathize’ with you, but is that band-aid solution actually the one that we truly need?

Let’s face the unfortunate reality that we have, because of the meager compensation that we receive despite of the number of hours we put in into our jobs — not everyone of us (in fact, most of us) doesn’t have the luxury of having a vehicle that we can use to bring us back and forth from our homes. Because of that, we rely to the public transportation systems that we have — and although it’s more cost-efficient, there needs to be a form of sacrifice, a catch per se, and that is many of us need to adjust our clocks and schedules so that we could arrive to our workplaces right on time. And to address this ever-present issue, the government needs to first: acknowledge that there is an issue to begin with and; second, they need to do concrete steps on how to deal about it.

First, they need to acknowledge.

I remember on October 2019, actually almost exactly three years ago today, at the time of writing, when then-Presidential spokesperson Salvador Panelo, when asked about the mass transportation crisis, he actually had the audacity to say, “Mukha namang wala pa, kasi nakakarating pa naman ‘yung mga dapat makarating sa kanilang pupuntahan.” When you read it in Filipino, it might look like it came straight out of a tongue twister book, but he says there: “It looks like there isn’t yet (the transport crisis). Because the ones who are supposed to get to where they’re supposed to go, they still can make it.” As stupid and confusing that statement might be, I hope that you get it.

If you thought that was bad, he actually doubled down on it by saying, “… If you want to go, arrive early in your destination, then you go there earlier.” This was a part of his statement during his press briefings to the media where he got a lot of backlash from, and deservingly so, if you ask me. Those are the lines that only a privileged person, someone who hasn’t ridden our headache-inducing public transport systems in a long time, if not even ever in his life. It invalidates every single struggle that all of us go through every single day just to make it into our offices and workplaces. It’s ignorant to you, as adjusting to the current state of our public transport is like cracking an egg, and doesn’t really cause a lot of our time in the long run.

To give you a little bit of context about this, this was in the middle of the time where the metro’s train systems are experiencing regular and consecutive breakdowns, causing for the inconvenience of many, opting for other means to make their way home, which also result in longer queues, and more time essentially wasted. Add to that, this is still in that time where we haven’t yet met and experienced the wrath of the coronavirus pandemic in all of our lives. His take is that heartless, insensitive and essentially a spit to the face to the ordinary Filipino worker and commuter — ordinary people like us.

He could only say that because he doesn’t know how to be in our shoes, and the struggles that we encounter in the road every single day. Well, after he got flak from this and was challenged by many weeks later — he tried though. But to say the very least, to ‘try’ is the best thing to describe the PR stunt that he did. I’m sure you’re familiar about what he did, he accepted the challenge and did everything he can to prove his point right, but all of it was to no avail. Reports are, he actually asked help from the police to essentially ‘spare him the waiting time’ and have him ride the jeep faster than the rest of the people waiting for him. If you thought that was bad enough, and if you thought he would eventually learn from his experience, and retract what he said, he was still assertive and firm.

The idea here is that the government and its leaders should first acknowledge that there is a problem at hand. They shouldn’t just turn a blind eye to the sufferings of the people, the countless of hours that they spend in queue, standing in the trains and the busses — precious time that they could’ve spent more for their families or even for themselves, such as sleep. Maybe at least have a little bit of empathy, perhaps, not invalidating their experiences on the road. After all, they are the ones that enjoy the luxury of being in their cars and maybe even with a private driver included in it, right? A great first step is for the ones on top to stoop down for at least a bit, recognize what’s wrong, and formulate steps on how to make it right.

Second, the need to act.

To know that there's a problem is just one thing, to formulate and ideate steps on how to solve it, is another. But it will only count and matter once we see those steps be executed effectively. As per engineer and urban transport export Rene Santiago in an interview with CNN Philippines, "There is an effort [that the government is doing] but the traditional solution of more infrastructure [build, build, build program under the Duterte administration] did not do it [solve the traffic crisis] because the implementation is very slow and we have a backlog of necessary infrastructure not built for the last four decades."

He also added that, "Our capacity to add infrastructure is very slow compared to the growth in traffic… We simply cannot cope with it," pointing that there should be a definitive balance between the two, and it's something that thr government has failed to do recently, especially during the pandemic. Now that we're in the trajectory towards normalcy, what can we do about it? One proposal that Santiago is proposing is the full and complete adaptation of hybrid setups. Whether it would be either for work, education or both, it will definitely help reduce the volume of people and vehicles in the streets.

He actually brought up some numbers to justify that claim, and as per him, it will help reduce the daily travel demand for about twenty percent, which results in four million less trips, looking into scale, translates into about four train lines in operation, and on the more realistic side - would definitely reduce the time that people will spend falling into long lines, and help them either get to work or get back to their homes all the more quicker.

Other solutions has been presented, and all of them should also be taken under immense consideration. Some of them includes:

• Reviving the odd-even coding scheme, one that was implemented during the late 1990s. The only catch this might have is that this could promote the wealthy to purchase more vehicles to counter this, but it’s only reserved to that fortunate few who are able.
• Adding more busses. One of the many dilemmas that the common Filipino is experiencing is that there are times that there are no more transport vehicles available to cater them, forcing them to wait for a while, and also form longer queues while doing so. Adding more busses and more routes at that will definitely not just help connect cities and hubs together, but also promote people to opt to commute because of it.; and
• Investing in cities outside of Metro Manila. Expansion is definitely one thing that is a possibility, but this will definitely take a long time before it flourishes. But as we look at cities in nearby provinces such as Bulacan, Rizal, Cavite, Laguna, and Batangas, the seeds are already planted, the promise is there and all it needs is the investment and the commitments of both the private and public sector.

The Metro Manila traffic has been a problem for a significant period now. With major projects ongoing such as development of subway and rail lines, more road and infrastructure projects to name a few, there are several steps that are being done, with the hopes of generating a desired result — to ease the traveling experience of everyone resorting to public transport as their only means of getting to their schools and/or workplaces.

The government should not be complacent, ignorant, invalidating, and keen on shoving into our faces their privilege that they don’t need to suffer as much as we do. In fact, to prove that they care — concrete, firm, and logical solutions needs to be done, and no amount of PR stunts could ever top that.