| Photo by Cris Fernandez
During a planned leisurely drive, ahem, if that was possible, on the streets of Metro Manila, it immediately became obvious that a leisurely drive was impossible. Be sure to take your dose of maintenance medication for hypertension and, if you have it, a dose of tranquilizers and all your patience. Traffic engineers have spent countless hours analyzing traffic congestion in Metro Manila, and the best solutions have “increased speeds from 14 KPH to 17 KPH”, about 10 miles an hour.
It is not uncommon to see jeepneys, AUVs (Asian Utility Vehicles), and minivans stopped and occupying at least one lane of any road. This would seem reasonable, except they don’t move until full, effectively converting this section of the road into a passenger terminal. Note there is no signage that this spot is a loading or unloading zone. It is the closest to one corner of a busy traffic intersection. These feeder roads largely get ignored or tolerated, sometimes for a fee or ‘tong,’ collected by the equally ubiquitous ‘barker’ or a cigarette vendor. No smart traffic enforcer would personally collect the ‘tong.’ Of course, this presents no inconvenience for the motorcycle driver, who can drive in any direction, even perpendicular to the traffic flow.
A barker calls on passengers to board the jeepney while ‘barking’ the jeepney’s destination. No traffic is in front of the jeepney(s) in front of the queue, while traffic is backed up from this point a mile or two back. During rush hour, this backup goes to the main thoroughfares, sometimes even the significant tollways. After exiting the tollway, in one trip of about 30 miles and a toll of P200 or $4, you’ll have the privilege of sitting in traffic only to find out that the cause was not some major accident or construction but a row of jeepneys.
Traffic enforcement seems to ‘disappear’ when rush hour is ordinarily over, resulting in even more traffic. Never mind when a drizzle starts and traffic enforcers run for their lives and seek cover because they don’t have rain gear?
A queue for a left turn seems to defy the solution. Instead of carving out a section of the plant box on the median to accommodate a left turn lane, traffic engineers have designed a bottleneck ahead. In contrast, traffic enforcement ‘tolerates’ jeepney loading and unloading just past the intersection, thus reducing any roadway to one lane. Remember, most intersections have working traffic lights. Instead of enforcing loading and unloading rules at the intersection, these officers prefer to render the traffic lights useless by ignoring them and manually directing traffic.
Decrepit buildings that appear to have a building permit for such an eyesore seem everywhere – never mind that it appears unsafe even to the untrained eye. Since I am not an engineer, I will not challenge the thinking that’s going on here or the lack of it.
Collapsed pedestrian overpasses, some in varying states of disrepair. A testimony to engineering regulations. One presumes the vendor who set up shop right below has complete confidence in the design of the remainder of the structure – maybe rent is free for betting one’s life. Against this backdrop, politicians insist on displaying their names on tarpaulins or painting on the structures with pride, not to mention the taxpayer money used to build the infrastructure. This practice is supposed to be illegal, but like every other facet of Filipino life, illegal has different meanings and degrees of application depending on your station in life.
“Salasalabat is the best way to describe this phenomenon. Wiring that more resembles a spiderweb than proper installation. Yes, we are still in Metro Manila. Why would anyone think this is acceptable? I am all for ease of doing business, but this is ridiculous.”
Salasalabat is the best way to describe this phenomenon. Wiring that more resembles a spiderweb than proper installation. Yes, we are still in Metro Manila. Why would anyone think this is acceptable? I am all for ease of doing business, but this is ridiculous.
This is the clincher, a garbage dumpster the size of a 40-foot container and just as tall, complete with a ladder. There are no wheels. This dumpster sits on the road, occupying one lane of roadway. Garbage pickup is their best version of it, anyway. Residents are expected to toss their garbage over the top, and for convenience, should the resident be too short or too weak to throw a garbage bag over – the convenience of a ladder. That’s genius.
Among my favorites are the electricity meters that are up so high, quickly 30 feet up on the utility pole, the meter readers have to use binoculars to read them. Suppose you must ask why you’ve not recently lived in the Philippines. Power pilfering and stealing were so common that the utility company had to resort to these drastic measures.
Depending on your financial wherewithal, either the ‘balde‘ or ‘drum’ would be your choice, or an overhead storage tank with a booster pump would be optimal because water supply in so-called Metropolitan Manila remains sporadic and, at best, somewhat reliable to be ‘good’ at night when most of the population sleeps, and businesses are closed.
These scenes are in Metro Manila but away from the swanky villages of the rich and famous.
Out of sight, out of mind.
The next time you drive in Metro Manila, you’ll at least have a better understanding of the oppressive traffic congestion resulting from the lack of rules. To go to Metro Manila, especially among the ever-increasing number of motorcycles (I fondly refer to them as bubuyog), let me share the same advice given to me while driving in Chennai, India. To go to Metro Manila, you need good brakes, a good horn, and, most of all, good luck.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Dr. Crispin Fernandez advocates for overseas Filipinos, public health, transformative political change, and patriotic economics. He is also a community organizer, leader, and freelance writer.
