A nightmare every morning

Cartoon illustrated by Keanu Liang

 

It is true that there are tons of things to be proud of as a Filipino — but our transportation system was never one.

Recently, a tweet propagated online about how undeserving working Filipinos are with their daily impediment due to our dreadful public transportation. It was stated that these employees have to wake up five hours before shift to make sure they fight well the battles on their way to work. And it occurred to us that in the hopes of finding easier ways to get to work, train systems are expected to save the day. However, what seemed to be the solution has brought about problems of its own, and not everything up above is glorious.

For the longest time, students like me have relied the biggest chunks of our commuting life on train systems. LRT-2, for one, on first glance at a normal morning can provide you the most number of students from Rizal who study in Manila. By observation, the long queues to merely enter the Santolan train station would cost you 30 minutes or so depending on the interruption of the authorities due to the massive passengers who have yet to go aboard, instead are trapped together with the others who have stayed longer inside. Still, we thought it was the best resort than taking a bus ride which will approximately take you to Manila in around two to three hours on a morning rush. Still, we thought it was better to stay up above the traffic jams caused by a sometimes unknown phenomenon of vehicles on the roads. Still, we thought we could better be canned in these insufficient trains that are magically maintained than get reprimanded by our teachers for tardiness.

But the constraint on our train systems does not only end on the population of passengers and the lack of usable trains. We begin to ask how usable really are the trains we adjust for. As a result, we become worried with our safety with these trains.

For instance, the maintenance of the controversial MRT-3 turned over to the Department of Transportation is speculated to worsen the condition of the system from November last year. It is kind of negligence to think that spare parts from defective trains are being arranged to modify the working trains. Of course, more unloading incidents happened in a short span of time and more lives are at risk.  It is like touching fire riding the trains and getting burned afterwards for the possible perils these technical malfunctions can cause. Employees, students, and other kinds of passengers are at risk. These people only want to experience transportation with comfort and speed that is why they take the train, but if together with those factors they can get closer to death, then everyone must be alarmed, most importantly the government.

It should not only be the foreign inspectors and experts invited by the government to check on our Jurassic trains and railways, but also the consideration that we, the Filipinos, deserve new trains to ride and in turn, pay for. The government needs to start investing on new items for a better transportation. We need to stop putting just temporary Band-Aids to these problems.

After all, we do not have much to offer when it comes to technology, but at least let us have the basic ones with safety and efficiency.

At least, let us have the transportation we deserve as Filipinos even if it does not equate as top-of-mind something to be proud of.

–Sheena Jayne Pangco