Do the functions of the transport secretary stop during this pandemic? Of course not. He has to find alternative transport systems that are cheap for the general public to enjoy as they go about their business, going to work, marketing or taking their children to school, and the like.
I notice that our transport secretary has shown favorites with regard to the choice for public transport to ply the streets of MetroManila. They are invariably few and expensive for ordinary folks like me.
While mandating social distancing protocols, the secretary must not forget that he is still the transport head and therefore, the transport problems of the people are still his burden, and that includes ensuring the lifeline of the jeepney drivers.
Unfortunately, it is taken for granted that just because there are vehicles plying the streets providing lackadaisical opportunities for people to move around, then the nitty-gritty problems of moving about in the smaller streets have been ignored.
This is rather unfair. I think that we must include the IATF in this problem. When imposing lockdowns or reducing the movements of people, they must insist, order would be the better word, that transport is still available everywhere, and that they are TIMED, every 15 minutes at the latest at stop points and not "que se hoda."
For senior citizens, mobility is crucial. They need to be able to buy their medicines food needs at the cheapest places. For artistic seniors, they can buy their art materials from Divisoria cheaply, and some other stores that are somewhere else i MetroMaila. Having no cheap transportation is denying them the right to decent living, to practice their careers and thus providing only the young and the vigorous to move around.
For example, the routes from Kamias to Welcome and/or Quiapo, of Marikina to Divisoria, these have been dismissed as inconsequential. so that business people who have to buy their supplies from cheap Divisori stalls, have no other alternative but to take a cab. Jeepney drivers do not come out to service the public in these places.
HERE IS WHERE SUBSIDIES ARE IMPERATIVE. THE TRANSPORT SECRETARY HAS TO THINK OF SUBSIDIZING THE REDUCTION IN THE INCOME OF THE DRIVERS WHO CHOOSE TO WORK. AND AT LEAST 60% OF THE ROUTES MUST BE SERVICED EVERY DAY, 24-7. OR ELSE, COMMANDEER THE MILITARY TRUCKS TO GO OUT AND SERVICE THE PUBLIC 24-7 ALSO. THIS IS HOW IMPORTANT TRANSPORTATION IS NECESSARY.
We must try to learn how to professionalize our government service even at these critical times. Pandemics should make us rethink the many ways we can still deliver important services to the people with the same quality if not much better.
Removing restrictions on mobility is ensuring that everyone has the right to shape their destiny, to create their own future -- here and everywhere else- ; and to move about in this globe for their education, for business opportunities, or for their own simple self-satisfaction.
The nurses who have left the country to service other patients than the Filipino people are so lucky as they will be leaving or have left for countries that are sensitive to the transport needs of their citizens.
SO WHAT ARE THE POINTS THAT WE ARE MAKING HERE?
1. Jeepneys must be available everywhere in MetroManila;
2. They must ply the routes 24-7;
3. Their arrivals at every stop point should be every 15 minutes at the latest;
4. Though we recognize the right of the drivers to drive or not to drive, the jeepney federations must be reminded of their public duty - to provide public use jeeps or PUJs -- and at least 70% of their members must adhere to the call of the government for them to be out in the streets. Otherwise, they should be penalized or their license to operate suspended.
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