Senator Francis Escudero, the "young" fellow from Sorsogon, notes that the country's roads are one of the most dangerous in Asia, if not the most dangerous of all. His remarks came after the death of a pupil from Ateneo who was about to take his ride home but never made it, let alone made it inside the vehicle he was supposed to take. Right there at the school's parking lot, an innocent soul was ripped right at the bud. Whether it was an accident or otherwise, I leave the courts to decide. Either way, no one is safe these days from the dangers brought by the roads that lead elsewhere. The case of Julian Carlo Miguel Alcantara is just the tip of a Himalayan problem that has haunted this country for decades and more.
I recall the countless trips I took to Naga City from Metro Manila, bus running through the rugged and jagged stretch of the Maharlika highway and ass burning from a journey that seemed like a lifetime. For eight solid hours, and sometimes more, the ride always went as a struggle. Quite apart from boredom, the condition of the road was an epic sight to behold, one that makes you wonder where the people's taxes go. The Arroyo's may have a good idea aided in no small way by the folks at DPWH. But going back, every turn and every mile of the highway were not without gaping holes and obliterated concrete pavements which, from their looks alone, would puncture the eye from a distance. Put simply, Maharlika highway was always a disaster waiting to snap, posing shapes and sizes of dangers to life and limb and property. As I have been accustomed to bear witness to, a large part of the highway badly needed repairs while some other dirt roads direly needed the touch of concrete. Even after repairs were made, it did not take long before the roads were yet again destroyed in partial or full, which was why the constructions never ended in the first place, causing buses and private vehicles to run—or crawl—at a morose pace.
I do not know which parts of the country experience the same tormenting situation but I have heard that the conditions somewhere in Samar were worse. Not surprisingly, road mishaps were frequent sights in Maharlika highway in previous years and even in later times. The prominence of road accidents happening in that highway gave it its infamous reputation as a "killer" highway, delivering people to their tombs, some from the cradle to the grave. I once had a tragic experience in it although I wasn't the one badly injured. I was aboard a bus on my way to Batangas from Naga City when the driver failed to notice a pedestrian along the road, and before he could turn the wheels the man was already a bloody mess, literally. The loud thud at the front right side of the bus was the head of the man meeting head-on with death. The driver kept on blaming the road for its unpleasant state and for causing his troubles until we reached our destination. That happened almost a decade ago.
And it's not only the highway or the network of roads that's causing all these. In Quezon City, drivers of public utility vehicles treat their machines with wanton abandon, overtaking one another like race cars speeding their way to a finish line that never nears. A number of them relentlessly fail to observe traffic rules all for the sake of hoarding more passengers than their fellow drivers. At one point in his life, Philip Salvador certainly got a firsthand taste of the grunt brought forth by the ignorance of some of the drivers of PUVs. The late Dr. Francisco Moreno Sarabia died from a freak accident in the most literal interpretation of the word freak. For what else can we call bus drivers racing one after the other in the dead of the night in EDSA and anywhere else?
Assholes, maybe? Nevermind drivers being sweet lovers. Only dry mistresses on the verge of sexual famine fall for that.
Our case puts to shame the cases of drunk driving in America. They drive drunk, and it's the closest excuse they can get from being penalized gravely. We drive sober, and yet road mishaps involving pedestrians continue to thrive in this country. What more if we're driving under the influence of alcohol? But racial contrast aside, the license to drive have become more and more synonymous with the license to kill on this side of the world. Feel free to argue against it.
The MMDA and the LTFRB may be right in saying that we do not lack for laws that proscribe unruly driving behaviors. We have plenty of them, which is why we also do not lack for licenses being revoked or withheld from the custody of erring drivers. The DPWH may also be right in saying that we do not lack for road construction and improvement in the metrpolis although the fundamental need for better roads in the provinces is an entirely different matter. Far worse than any of these combined altogether is the thought that lingers in the minds of people, which is this: you can get away with any one of these, there's no chance you cannot get away from doing more in the future. You can get away with trivial public biddings for government projects, there's no chance you cannot get away from doing more of the same in the future. You can get away with running over pedestrians and loading and unloading passengers in all the wrong places, there's no chance you cannot get away from doing more of the same in the coming days or weeks. You can get away with bribing law enforcers on the streets who enforce anything but the law, there's no chance you cannot get away from doing more of the same.
And to hell with police officers who shoot you in the head from point blank range right in the middle of EDSA. But that's another story.
There must be some grain of truth in the saying that the roads in this country are no longer safe. They aren't just roads. They're roads to your perdition, amplified by drivers unyielding before the proscriptions of the law.
I recall the countless trips I took to Naga City from Metro Manila, bus running through the rugged and jagged stretch of the Maharlika highway and ass burning from a journey that seemed like a lifetime. For eight solid hours, and sometimes more, the ride always went as a struggle. Quite apart from boredom, the condition of the road was an epic sight to behold, one that makes you wonder where the people's taxes go. The Arroyo's may have a good idea aided in no small way by the folks at DPWH. But going back, every turn and every mile of the highway were not without gaping holes and obliterated concrete pavements which, from their looks alone, would puncture the eye from a distance. Put simply, Maharlika highway was always a disaster waiting to snap, posing shapes and sizes of dangers to life and limb and property. As I have been accustomed to bear witness to, a large part of the highway badly needed repairs while some other dirt roads direly needed the touch of concrete. Even after repairs were made, it did not take long before the roads were yet again destroyed in partial or full, which was why the constructions never ended in the first place, causing buses and private vehicles to run—or crawl—at a morose pace.
I do not know which parts of the country experience the same tormenting situation but I have heard that the conditions somewhere in Samar were worse. Not surprisingly, road mishaps were frequent sights in Maharlika highway in previous years and even in later times. The prominence of road accidents happening in that highway gave it its infamous reputation as a "killer" highway, delivering people to their tombs, some from the cradle to the grave. I once had a tragic experience in it although I wasn't the one badly injured. I was aboard a bus on my way to Batangas from Naga City when the driver failed to notice a pedestrian along the road, and before he could turn the wheels the man was already a bloody mess, literally. The loud thud at the front right side of the bus was the head of the man meeting head-on with death. The driver kept on blaming the road for its unpleasant state and for causing his troubles until we reached our destination. That happened almost a decade ago.
And it's not only the highway or the network of roads that's causing all these. In Quezon City, drivers of public utility vehicles treat their machines with wanton abandon, overtaking one another like race cars speeding their way to a finish line that never nears. A number of them relentlessly fail to observe traffic rules all for the sake of hoarding more passengers than their fellow drivers. At one point in his life, Philip Salvador certainly got a firsthand taste of the grunt brought forth by the ignorance of some of the drivers of PUVs. The late Dr. Francisco Moreno Sarabia died from a freak accident in the most literal interpretation of the word freak. For what else can we call bus drivers racing one after the other in the dead of the night in EDSA and anywhere else?
Assholes, maybe? Nevermind drivers being sweet lovers. Only dry mistresses on the verge of sexual famine fall for that.
Our case puts to shame the cases of drunk driving in America. They drive drunk, and it's the closest excuse they can get from being penalized gravely. We drive sober, and yet road mishaps involving pedestrians continue to thrive in this country. What more if we're driving under the influence of alcohol? But racial contrast aside, the license to drive have become more and more synonymous with the license to kill on this side of the world. Feel free to argue against it.
The MMDA and the LTFRB may be right in saying that we do not lack for laws that proscribe unruly driving behaviors. We have plenty of them, which is why we also do not lack for licenses being revoked or withheld from the custody of erring drivers. The DPWH may also be right in saying that we do not lack for road construction and improvement in the metrpolis although the fundamental need for better roads in the provinces is an entirely different matter. Far worse than any of these combined altogether is the thought that lingers in the minds of people, which is this: you can get away with any one of these, there's no chance you cannot get away from doing more in the future. You can get away with trivial public biddings for government projects, there's no chance you cannot get away from doing more of the same in the future. You can get away with running over pedestrians and loading and unloading passengers in all the wrong places, there's no chance you cannot get away from doing more of the same in the coming days or weeks. You can get away with bribing law enforcers on the streets who enforce anything but the law, there's no chance you cannot get away from doing more of the same.
And to hell with police officers who shoot you in the head from point blank range right in the middle of EDSA. But that's another story.
There must be some grain of truth in the saying that the roads in this country are no longer safe. They aren't just roads. They're roads to your perdition, amplified by drivers unyielding before the proscriptions of the law.
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