james.soriano

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PUBLISHED: Student & Campus Section, Manila Bulletin, 12 November 2008 Issue (Page F-3)

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It was a normal Thursday afternoon, driving home after spending the day with my father. We were about five minutes away, but it felt more like ten since the road was congested. I was slowly preparing to turn right on one of the streets when a taxi, coming from the adjacent street, came speeding towards us.

I had the right of way, and I wasn’t in the mood to get hit by another car. So, I hit the brake, figuring that he would see me and stop as well, or at the very least, give him enough space to inch through. But he was moving much too fast to pass through, though, and my dad, a very experienced driver, knew it.

Worse off, he was only looking to his left (he probably didn’t want to get cut by the next car); he neglected to look back in the direction his car was turning. My dad lowered his windshield and shouted to catch the attention of the driver, who was centimeters away from making a dent on our car’s right side. I finally had to honk at him. This caught his attention, and he went on a full stop.

But instead of letting me pass, he quickly started maneuvering to get out of the tight space. But he was careless and hit a tricycle parked on the curb.

During those last few minutes on the wheel after the incident, I couldn’t stop thinking of the taxi driver. I was still a bit angry, but I did feel bad for him. Being a taxi driver isn’t exactly an easy line of work: even if you drive for long hours, usually there’s just barely enough income to bring home at the end of the day. Maybe he was half-asleep on the wheel, tired and sore from long hours of continuous driving. Maybe he was hungry; perhaps he didn’t eat lunch in order to save some money. Or maybe his mind was somewhere else, thinking of how he was going to scrape up enough cash to pay his overdue bills. I pretty much transformed him into a pitiful creature in my head.

Did that excuse his lousy driving? No, it didn’t. Considering how many of the car accidents reported on television involve public utility vehicles and their kaskasero drivers, the last thing we want to do is to vindicate their being ill-mannered on the road. Besides, I too could have been hungry, or tired, of thinking of my overdue bills.

But the fact is, I wasn’t.

I’ve been on a couple of taxi rides alone myself, and I’ve met my share of taxi drivers, some of whom can get quite talkative about their lives. Of course, you never really know whether they’re telling you the truth, and you always have to be wary of the things you reveal or the routes they’re taking. But sometimes, they drawl on for such prolonged periods of time that I can’t help thinking maybe they’re just lonely and in need of someone to talk to, or even talk at. Or maybe I’m just lucky I haven’t been kidnapped yet.

In my own insufficient way, I guess I sympathize with these people. It’s quite condescending, really, to claim that I feel for them when I’ve had no real experience of poverty myself. But what I do understand is that these taxi drivers also contend with high LPG prices, have qualms with higher management, and do overtime, because times are hard and that’s how they get by.

Of course, if I had gotten into that accident, I wouldn’t have thought about it that way. I would’ve been too busy arguing with the taxi driver about whose fault it was, and making him pay for the damage he caused the car. It also would’ve justified the demonized perception I have of PUV drivers in Metro Manila.

It never would have occurred to me to see the human face behind the monstrous taxi driver.

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PUBLISHED: Student & Campus Section, Manila Bulletin, 14 August 2008 Issue (page F-3)

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Since last Wednesday, going to school has become a horrible experience for me and my siblings. Without virtually any warning, the MMDA decided to close on that day the U-turn slot just right before the Katipunan flyover across Ateneo. By Monday, all the U-turn slots across Miriam College were closed. Presumably, this measure was meant to ease the perennial traffic buildup in the area, especially during school hours.It didn’t.

Instead, the opposite happened. Huge bottlenecks now occur under the Katipunan flyover as well as the U-turn slot going to UP. Those who want to avoid the standstill would have to journey all the way to the U-turn slot at the end Katipunan in Blue Ridge. This is no small inconvenience, considering that it’s around three kilometers away from the Ateneo gate, and fuel prices are skyrocketing.

Last Friday, the situation blew out of proportion. According to a traffic bulletin, the Katipunan traffic slowed to a halt a quarter before seven in the morning. This was because the vehicles coming from UP and beyond who were making a U-turn at Miriam had occupied all the lanes. In a matter of minutes, traffic on the other lane slowed down as well. Some vehicles went against the traffic to join the cars making a U-turn at Miriam. No officers arrived to take control of the situation until half an hour later, and the gridlock lasted until around nine. Many students were late. Some were forced to walk to school in order to elude the standstill.

As a response, the MMDA closed both U-turns as well. Now, everyone resorts to the U-turn under the flyover, where all the traffic from Xavierville goes. The bottleneck there gets so bad that even commuters are affected.

As you can see, I’m not a big fan of the change in traffic scheme. I think it makes things more difficult for motorists. True, Katipunan traffic has never been easy to deal with, but neither is EDSA traffic, or España traffic. But I don’t think there’s a pressing need to change things in Katipunan right now. The old scheme may not be perfect, but it’s working because motorists are already used to it. If it’s not broken, why fix it?

To be fair though, I’m not saying we shouldn’t introduce changes that might improve things. And every time we do, we’re obviously bound to encounter some difficulties. We shouldn’t be so quick to judge either.

But sometimes that route leads to a dead-end. And when you get to that point, the only thing to do is to stop and turn back.

In the first place, the scheme itself didn’t seem to be well-thought out. Traffic was simply diverted to all the wrong places. The situation last Friday could have been avoided if the traffic officers had been there to maintain order from the beginning, not to mention that motorists seemed unprepared for the situation. More effort should have been exerted in disseminating the information about the plan.

It’s when things like these happen that I begin to wonder whether our government remembers that we’re still people, not mere pawns on a policy-making chessboard. Our lives are affected by the laws they enact and the measures they implement, not to mention that it is their responsibility to serve us. There is more to traffic management than just closing U-turns; people have to be on time for school, they spend money on gas, and their lives could be put in peril by car accidents.

In the same vein, there is more to the Bangsamoro agreement than just a piece of paper. There are all the people that you would displace to consider. There is more to agrarian reform than just economics and business. There are the lives and livelihoods of farmers to consider. There is more to the ZTE deal than just internet access. What’s at stake is the blood, sweat, and tears of millions of Filipinos in the form of tax money.

Then again, I guess they just can’t consider every single thing. That’s just reality.

But won’t you agree that we deserve a lot better?