WHY DISTURB THE STATUS QUO?

Why do we go home to our home provinces? That's because it is so relaxing to leave all the cares in MetroManila and feel the fresh air, enjoy the still uncommercialized sites and the greenery if of course less all those ricefields that have been converted to subdivisions.

I admire our Kababayan who prefer going home everyday to the nearby provinces rather than seek a space here in MetroManila which has become a nightmare especially during rush hours. They know what they want in life definitely and follow it.

But other people who come from the provinces are the vegetable farmers from Isabela, Cagayan, Nueva Vizcaya and the mountainous Cordillera regions as well as from So
uthern Luzon. They are our persevering, industrious and self sacrificing Folks who know that their produce are feeding the hungry mouths in MetroManila. And so they are able to give us regular supplies of veggies and other food stuffs.

Horror of horrors, a new ruling of the MetroManila Development Authority aims to "close all 46 terminals for provincial buses and other public utility vehicles (PUVs) along Edsa by June in yet another bid to decongest the metropolis’ busiest thoroughfare.

The Metro Manila Council,  MMDA’s policy-making body, recently approved a resolution prohibiting the issuance and renewal of business permits to all such terminals along Edsa following a supposed directive from President Duterte.th

Bus operators will be relocated to bus terminals in the cities of Parañaque, Sta. Rosa and Valenzuela. Commuters coming into the capital will have to transfer to Metro Manila-bound PUVs." (Inq Mar 28, 2019)

What will happen to our daily commuting Kababayan from the provinces? They will be moving up and down and taking another bus to enter MetroManila. So another set of vehicles will be entering MetroManila cities for a redundant purpose. Those who are coming with baggages for sale will be doubly, triply burdened by the directive which is rather unfair. For many years they have been coming in and out of MetoManila and are able to use their small income to live in the provinces. Yet now they will be asked to shell out more for the shortsighted solution of traffic by banning provincial buses.

Our healthlifeline comes from the regional areas where our farmers continually produce the crops that would feed us here in the cities. We should be very grateful for that. In fact I met a vegetable farmer who had sold me her small bottle of fried garlic only for P120, normally pricedmuch higher than at mall groceries.

And I need the fried garlic to strengthen my body's resistance to diseases.

I also was able to buy turmeric at half the price which is regularly sold along the sidewalk vendors around the Quezon Memorial Circle.

I think the MMDA is ill-advised if it will proceed with the directive.

1. They are hurting not only the people in the provinces but also the non-car using folks of the cities who depend on cheap raw foods coming from the provinces;

2. They are congesting MetroManila cities more because those rural folks who commute to their jobs here will be looking for closer sleeping spaces so they can save on transport fares;

3. This has a concomitant social problem - families will be broken by the policy as members will be separated instead of being able to spend time together everyday. Hence this is creating the miniOFW situation where families are separated geographically. The psychological problems arising from that could be disastrous in the long run.

4. The same number of vehicles are needed to transport inwardly those who will be unloaded at the external terminals. So where is the decongestion solution there? I heard this info from the interview by Angelo Palmones over the radio with an officer whose consortium would be affected. I was shocked by the comical situation.

So why disturb the status quo?

I think we should not look at transport as just moving people and things. Transport requires a sociological approach, a broader view that life is more than always running about but creating harmonious ties along the way. We live in a society, a country with people with similar historical backgrounds. Let us not destroy but rather insure that we are shaping people into caring and nurturing individuals who will forge a future that is equal. prosperous, and humane for all and who will always praise and appreciate our great historical backgrounds.

WILHELMINA OROZCO

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