Thursday, July 10, 2008 Ledesma: Let's get that train moving! By Jun Ledesma Sunbursts
MY FIRST car was a second hand Austin mini. I have to tell you that even if it exposes my age. Believe it or not, it cost me less than the cost of two full tanks of gas I load on my ˙Toyota F these days. Very soon my Toyota will cost less than two full tanks of gas before the end of this decade.
But before that happens I might have already switched to the good old bicycle or just walk my way to work assuming I still have a job left. Jeepney rides will cost me a fortune and my savings won't last a month just riding on jeepneys and even buses. So I just have to go back to basics: walk with my worn out "Spartan" slippers because "havaianas" will be out of the question.
Exaggeration? Think about this. Not too long ago gasoline was costing less than a P10/liter. We hated Marcos because galonggong during his time cost P7.00/kilo. Then prices started to escalate. When ˙gas reached P36/liter and galonggong P27/kilo I thought that was it.
There was no other way prices can go up and therefore these should only go down. Actually that was wishful thinking. Before I could complain diesel was beyond P50 and galonggong P100 and still going!
Last Sunday, our parish priest at the Redemptorist Church delivered a word of encouragement. He said that the difficulties we are facing today is global. But then he said that it is not the end of the world. He recounted how Americans during their time of difficulties plant vegetables in their front and backyard, in empty lots and flower pots.
As he said those my wife nudged me for that is exactly what we have done. We don't buy our eggplants, string beans, kangkong, and pechay. We grow them and that save us a little money plus we enjoy watching tiny seedlings grow into fruit bearing plants or leafy vegetables. If we believe in the Lord’s Prayer, God will always give us our daily bread. But we have to work and not leave everything to God.
What gives us the creeps is the skyrocketing price of fuel which one of these days will no longer be within our affordability. Still our government officials do not seem to be bothered about the social upheaval that the cost of fuel will result into.
Their idleness over this potential catastrophic problem in the waiting is beyond my comprehension. These crooks just to increase their commission from government projects and their predicament are solved. That is why they waste time debating and muckraking of finding solutions to what plague the nation. We hoi-pollois have to sweat it out. When we shall have ran out of sweat I am sure that the hungry detergents in congress will flee the country otherwise face the guillotine.
But that grim scenario need not really happen for there are solutions that can reduce our dependence on fossil fuels. We should be happy that despite the fact that we are a poor country, we have renewable resources which can be tapped to make life more bearable and in fact happy.
But only if we put our acts together and for the politicians to stop hankering for pork can we be extricated from the quagmire that is slowly pulling us into that cavernous unknown. It's not about "moderating their greed" that some anti-government witnesses in sheepskin proposed, but altogether a complete cessation of daytime robbery otherwise face the firing squad.
Opposition politicians may smile at this but this actually does not exclude them for they too are in the take and are just crouching like starving lions waiting for their time to feast on our depleted coffers.
If you ask me, our Mindanao leaders should not wait for congress to address some of our pressing problems. Remember how often did our congressmen (starting with then congressman Rodolfo del Rosario) attempt to have a train system set up in Davao Region? The proposal cannot pass first reading because Luzon legislators just do not care about Mindanao.
Since they have the most numbers in both senate and the house, all investments for railway systems are poured in Luzon and Metro Manila. The sad part of it is that we are not even angry at this iniquitous disparity. We have always seen to it that we vote Luzon candidates first before we consider one of ours.
But back to the railway in Davao. The Davao Integrated Development Plan I understand had incorporated this project in its long term plans. It's about time we place this in the short term agenda. Imagine a train running from Tagum to Digos via Davao to start with.
I live somewhere in Lanang, Davao City. If there is a train service that passes through that area and go straight through say Trading or Bukana, I will walk my way to the train station get on that train and off at Trading then walk all the way to City Hall. Good for the health. Right?
Because we have renewable source of energy like waterfalls, rivers and streams and geothermal power to name a few, operating trains for public transport using energy from these sources will cost us a picayune compared to when we use oil-fed vehicles.
This, aside from being environment friendly. Of course some quarters will always find fault in this for political and other twisted reasons and some of out of this (under)world belief on the wrath of a (false) god.
Very so often some good things arise from crises. We are right in the doorstep of crises and we better act now before we lost the energy that spurs us to react when pushed between the sword and the wall and the resolve to face the "slings and arrows" of outrageous fuel price increase.
Maybe DIDP should look at China and see what ZTE can offer us in terms of soft loans and railway technology. We should not be paralyzed by the expose of Jun Lozada who allowed the cancer of corruption to gnaw into the core of a bureaucracy where he is part of before he cried help there are big thieves and the small thief is me!
DIDP is not DOTC and the people behind DIDP are not in the mold of the corruptors and the corrupted in the ZTE-DOTC scrapped broadband deal. We’ve got to make that train moving.
