Insensitivity

Anyone who tries to use any public utility vehicle coupled with the roads and streets in Manila (in short, transportation system) will say that it is simply torture except maybe for the railway station from Santolan to Recto. Sad to say, it is almost every day. Add to the equation the polluted air in Metro Manila. So before anyone can reach his destination, he must go through this ordeal. But it seems to me that more than the road, streets, poorly engineered public vehicles, what adds up to the wild jungle of commuting is the insensitivity of people to the needs of others.

Try taking a cab, you might end up with a grumpy taxi driver or a suicidal one who seems to want to end up his life by barraging his vehicle and speeding up recklessly or swerving instantly, etc, etc and you want to tell him, “Manong, huwag mo na ako idamay.” Private motorist would also complain of traffic jams and jeepneys and buses loading and unloading in the wrong places.

Meanwhile, in the jeepneys, it is like you got into a blender. Passengers are shook up and rumbled while the driver is playing a loud English translated to Filipino rap music that honestly you do not want to hear early in the morning. I do not know if it is a strategy to discriminate the introvert or silent types because you will have to roar loudly like a tiger for “Para!” or for “Manong, sukli ko po?!!!” The driver takes full stop and everybody gets thrown to the front of the jeepneys. It rarely happens though because usually passengers only get squeezed in that can. It is funny but come on.

If you try to take the bus, you have to be ready for it and I mean, emotionally and physically. If you are unlucky, the bus will stop in the middle of the street or avenue. You have to be fast to catch that bus and your life. It is the same thing when you are already alighting. I think that this is done to facilitate a continuous movement of the bus and to avoid any apprehensions from law enforcement officers (which is another story). At any rate, you have to be swift like a deer. It is a jungle out there.

Last year when I went to Singapore I saw the giant humungous difference. The whole place is interconnected with a light railway transit. The buses stop where they are supposed to stop. Taxi drivers are professional but during certain hours they charge higher but heck at least you don’t get tortured. Those who have been to Europe and the United States will have the same observation (and that is a common statement to make). It was a Holy Week when I came home and the taxi driver did not even help me with my luggage. Isn’t it perfect?

Hey, this is not only about drivers. There are also some passengers who are insensitive. Sometimes you see passengers turning a deaf ear so that he does not have to pass the fare of his jeepmate. The methods are creative ranging from that to pretending to sleep in an FX. All for the sake of saving oneself of the hassle of passing the other’s fare. Ingenious!

This may be amusing but when this becomes road accidents and someone dies or gets hurt, it isn’t. However, the truth is every commuter gets a little bit injured or tortured in this every day process. Certain conclusions can be gleaned from all of these (but surely there are many others). First, I understand that Filipinos are hardworking but sometimes we can be so insensitive. The funny thing is that if you put that same driver in some place other than this country to drive, he will behave differently. It is not only once that we get to hear of Filipinos being applauded for professionalism abroad. Why can’t we do the same in our own country, for our own fellowmen? Second, the streets, the roads, the avenue or whatever the case may be gives us a good start or a bad end for our day. It determines one’s mood or one’s physical appearance when he arrives at the office or the school. It is a very important aspect of everyday life. But roads do not wiggle or swerve, don’t they? It is human factor. We do not have the best roads in the world but we can make it our system, a little bit better by improving that human factor. To some extent, some of the difficulties of life in the Philippines (particularly in the transportation system) can be addressed by a little bit of sensitivity to others.