THIS photo of two students from one of the state universities in Cebu City went viral on social media recently. It was posted on SunStar Cebu’s Facebook page on February 2, 2017. We contacted the one who uploaded it but he said the photo was not his. According to him, he only downloaded it and posted it on his Facebook timeline then it was shared many times by Facebook users and pages.
An issue on gender equality or on Cebu City’s mass transportation?
Here’s what reader Angel Trocio says:
Some may say that this is gender equality, that finally makaangkas na gyud ang babaye sa jeep. Some may also say, how can the society achieve gender equality if men can’t even lend their seats to these two ladies?
However, from a critical lens, this is a political-economic problem lurking in the cloak of gender struggle. You see, this pits gender against each other rather than unifying it; that had there been a proper mass transportation system in the country, men and women would no longer have to fight against each other for a comfortable seat in an affordable trip they both deserve in the first place.
This transportation crisis roots from class struggle emanating in the society; that unless the modes of producing an effective mass transport system are dictated by capitalists whose primary goal is to drive more profit from the broadest number of people, men and women alike, it will always be out of reach from the common people.
Then, we will still settle for “angkas system and hours of waiting in long queues. Or settle in a public-private-partnership transportation project like MyBus or Cebu Bus Rapid Transit, which benefits the private sector (like Aboitiz, etc.) more than the affected public by giving the latter the burden of paying high fare costs over “comfort” and “state-of-the-art” facilities which the former provides.
I see this more of a man-and-women vs the oppressive system issue rather than a man-vs-woman issue.