Mao ba?

When I was still commuting from Mandaue to Escario, I, in my preferred perch beside the driver, happened to overhear a guy talking to the driver about a strike set to happen the day after.

The guy, exhorting all his persuasive powers, was trying to convince the driver that they should be united in their demand for the government to allow them to raise their fares because they simply cannot cope with the rising prices of gasoline.

Inexplicably, I sat there, silently urging the driver to say, “Yes, okay. I’ll give up a day’s wages for our cause. Yes, I see the need to be united with my fellow drivers.”

I don’t know why I thought that way really. After all, that meant my having difficulty in finding a ride to go to the office the next day. Maybe it’s because I’ve seen wives and sons act as conductors to their husband-father drivers just so they could earn more as a family. Or maybe it’s because I fairly believe jeepney drivers need a break sometimes too, from all their worries about gasoline and feeding their families.

Unions and jeepney strikes are political only at the top. I prefer to think of it as a group of people pushed to taking drastic measures because they want something to happen.

Maybe this was why I was supremely irked upon reading a Sun Star column last July 2 with the title, “Keep jeepneys off our streets permanently.”

Intrigued, I read on, only to find these:

“Did you notice? Traffic in most parts of the city (at least those where I went to) was smooth and orderly yesterday. There were no crisscrossing vehicles that cut your lanes or stopped whenever and wherever they wanted. Thank God for the jeepney strike, for the first time in so many months, I was able to drive without my blood pressure soaring above 130/90.

Leaders of a militant drivers' group gloated that they were able to paralyze public transportation in 80 percent of the city. I sympathize with the commuters who were the ones who bore the brunt of the strike but come to think it: something good and useful might come out of this supreme act of irrationality such as the establishment of a mass transit system that excludes the jeepney.

We can do without the jeepneys. In fact, we're better off without them. As reader Tony Padua noted in a letter that he sent to opinion writers, on the day the drivers went on strike, the air was unusually clean and the view of the hills sharp and crisp.

The government has for long allowed itself to be held hostage by a group that has largely been acting like a child who goes into tantrums every time he does not immediately get what he wants. Perhaps, it's time to spank the child. Keep the jeepneys permanently off the streets.”

Then the columnist moved on to discuss some barangay captain in a bank.

In my initial frustration at the thought of this pompous guy writing this gleefully in his laptop, thinking he was so clever, I sent an email. In part, it goes this way:

“We don't have cars; we can't take taxis wherever we go. We depend on jeepneys to get to work or school because there is nothing else available. With the ongoing Sulpicio Lines debacle, the rising gas prices and jeepney strikes, reading a column I consider thoughtless and smug just pisses me off. Sure, clean air and good views are good. But I had to walk, and wait for a long time before I got home. This is another reader's reaction. Haven't you considered how the first part of your column might sound to someone like me?

What you could have done was expand more on the possibility of a railway transit here or that "mass transit system that excludes jeepneys" concept you carelessly threw in there. I would have appreciated that more, especially after reading the title and getting high expectations from it.”

Today, he replied to me and a few other readers who reacted. It can be found here.

I retain my original position that his column was incomplete, meant only to become the topic of a conversation. It didn’t give me anything I can use, not even inspire me to come up with the “seeds” for a mass transit system. Instead, he just gave a selfish take on the jeepney strike.

What could this mass transit system look like? An MRT-like contraption in Cebu? Little e-cars driven on autopilot? God forbid, pedicabs? In Cebu? What about all those jeepney drivers and conductors and cigarette vendors and carenderias catering to the drivers?

Perhaps he should have suggested a way to make the Land Transportation Office more effective (it should give out licenses only to those qualified—people can pay for a license naman gud), or that the government hire more police officers to regulate traffic and be strict about it (invest in infrastructure and fast police vehicles, and not easyrides, and a centralized system for monitoring traffic violations).

We deserve more columnists who can allot more time in their busy schedules to give a balanced view on current issues, who can research, who can put something as bodacious as “Keep the jeepneys off the streets” in his column title and back it up.