PRESIDENTIAL Spokesperson Salvador "SalPan" Panelo had a new experience in life when he took the challenge of riding the jeepney in going to his office in Malacanang from his abode in Quezon City. He was late by several minutes from 8 a.m., the official time of government officials and employees reporting for work.
Panelo's commuting in going to his office emanated from a challenge of commuters group and the militant Bayan Muna Secretary-General Renato Reyes when the latter said that there is traffic crisis in the country and that public commuters are wasting a lot of their supposed productive time in going to their offices and back to their homes.
Panelo, because of such statement, retorted saying that Filipinos are creative that they can reach their offices in time. He also added that they can leave early from their homes so they can reach their workplaces in time. The spokesperson's statements earned the attention and ire of commuters which resultes into the challenge.
The challenge was accepted by Panelo and just this week, he took the jeepney in going to Malacanang. Because of the issue on transportation and traffic crisis, however, his travel via public utility jeepney was further delayed by the ambush interviews some of our colleagues made on him. The delays irked some of the fellow passengers of Panelo who took the consequences of tardiness.
When Panelo took the public jeepney, he had the wrong attire of wearing white long sleeves polo shirt. We expect that the said attire to have dark spots when he arrives at Malacanang due to pollution and perspiration which are part of taking the public transportation.
In toto, the challenge that Panelo accepted is a failure on his part for he was late for the office. It affirmed the statement of Reyes that there is indeed a crisis on traffic, that people suffer a lot from the daily commuting in going to workplaces or schools. For several years, the public endured the hardship and difficulty of taking the public ride.
The problem with vehicular traffic in the Philippines is the lack of better public transport which offers convenience, comfort and security. People instead of taking public vehicles, are forced to buy their own private vehicles which eventually results into vehicular congestion. If only public utility vehicles are comfortable enough, those with their own pirvate vehicles would surely resort to commuting.
The government should develip further our railways system. Take the case of Japan where bullet trains are far better than using their own cars. In other countries, trains are more popular than buses and taxis. They are cheaper too and can cut the travel time of travelers.
With the convenience of trains in other countries, people are discouraged to buy or use their own caes, thus does not add up to the congestion of vehicles on roads.
Going back to the challenge, i hope other high-ranking government officials should also take it so they would feel how is it to travel by commuting. In such case, maybe they would be more eager in finding out solutions to our traffic woes.
We can easily solve such, according to Senator Bong Go, only if we have Superman around.
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