There were no bodyguards to help in grabbing a ride or police motorcycle escorts to part the traffic. On Anakbayan’s dare, Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo accepted the challenge to take mass transport to experience the daily plight of ordinary commuters. Without special participation and treatment, will Panelo survive the long lines, hours of waiting, and horrendous traffic that commuters endure every day?
Panelo’s morning rush hour drive from his home in Marikina City to his office usually takes about an hour. On October 11 at 5:15 am, he took a roundabout way, from a relative’s home in New Manila, Quezon City to Marikina — close to an hour on a jeepney — and then on to Manila. When he finally reached Malacañang, on the motorcycle of a Good Samaritan who picked him up, Panelo calculated that his commute had taken a grueling three hours and 40 minutes.
Millions of commuters endure such a situation every working day. The suffering is worse during the rainy days. Others slog through the horrid traffic in their private vehicles. Now the Light Rail Transit 2 (LRT 2) needs rehabilitation for up to nine months, compelling thousands of regular LRT 2 commuters to take ground transportation. It can only aggravate the traffic jams, which are expected to worsen due to the approaching holiday season.
And yet the presidential spokesperson stuck to his assessment denying the existence of a crisis in the mass transport system despite the frequent breakdown of train lines and the worsening traffic problem resulting in a longer commute for citizens who are taking public utility vehicles.
After his exhausting morning commute to get into the office, Panelo invited more opposition by explaining that it could not be a transport crisis because there is no paralysis and people could still get to their destinations. For workers and students, this meant spending hours on heavily congested roads such as EDSA.
Moreover, if the trip is taking longer, leave home early, he advised the public. Well, in fact, Panelo’s commute just proved that there is a transportation crisis. He does not understand how commuting works if he thinks that leaving early will guarantee arriving early at one’s destination.
If his commute time is typical, and if the situation is similar during the evening rush hour, it means an ordinary regular commuter between Marikina and Manila can spend nearly eight hours a day on the road. Eight hours is the typical working time for regular employees. One does not need a detailed study to realize how much productivity is lost to this kind of situation that has its roots in the acute inadequacy of mass transportation in the metropolis.
Furthermore, he did not experience what regular commuters really endure every day just to get to their destination due to the special treatment that he received from policemen, the LRT management and traffic enforcers. It is just a scripted publicity stunt.
I suggest he disguise himself so that he can really feel what an ordinary commuter with no bodyguards during the rush hour endures. Remember that commuting with VIP treatment is not entirely the same as commuting for a regular citizen.
Panelo should also do it for a week, not for a day because how can you say that you really experienced the day-to-day struggle of every commuter and fully understand what the people need in just a single day? If the objective of this exercise is to have the same experience as a regular commuter and for the government to act on the crisis, then he already failed.
President Rodrigo Duterte himself has admitted failure in addressing the EDSA traffic jam but has presented no plans on how to address the current crisis immediately.
Many proposals have been submitted to the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority to address traffic woes, but commuters have branded them as band-aid solutions, if not downright ridiculous suggestions.
Commuters and traffic advocates are calling for accountability. They are asking the government to provide accessible and hassle-free transportation options to Filipinos because they deserve better.
For several years now, the situation has called for urgent action — which is why some people describe it as a crisis. Beyond the dispute over semantics, we all hope that Panelo’s experience as a commuter would bring home to policymakers the urgency of dealing with the problems of mass transportation and traffic.
