I don’t ask for grand things. I don’t have a huge sense of entitlement. I don’t demand for many things just to make my life convenient. And I don’t say these because I’m a card-carrying do-gooder.
I think these are not too much to ask:
I don’t want to walk on flooded waters. I don’t like to be stranded for 6 hours. I don’t want to see school children huddling with their parents under an umbrella somewhere in EDSA because passenger vehicles are too full. It hurts my eyes to see them dripping in the rain near midnight. I don’t want classes to be suspended when it’s no longer raining and the reason we are suspending them is because the students were so tired and so high with fever due to their previous day strain.
Surely these are not entitlements and luxuries. Surely I have a reason to be frustrated.
Why did we not suspend classes earlier today? The rain did not stop and judging by our roads’ capacity to absorb water, we could have already estimated that the continuous downpour even sans a storm signal is dangerous. And so come rush hour and Manila is almost 8 million, the students were also going home and they were stranded just like the adults. Why Dep Ed? Why Mayors? Why school principals and authorities? Why?
Why can’t we have better weather forecasting? For a country that’s raining for half of the year for at least 2011 years, why can’t we master the craft of predicting weather behavior?
Why can’t we have better roads? Why do we keep repairing roads that can’t stand day-long downpour?
While enduring five hours of being stranded, I thought of several suggestions to make our country a better Philippines. Some of these are ideas of genius friends who, like me, are so Philippine pedestrians.
First, I suggest that government officials enroll their children in public schools. Even at least for a year. In that way, they’d have key informants for social issues like what does the road fronting a public school look like under heavy rains. Chances are it’s flooded.
Second, I suggest that public officials commute. Even at least for one day a week. In that manner, they will have crucial information on how hard it is to get a seat in the trains or the jeepneys especially during rush hour of a rainy day.
Having first hand information, I think key officials will squeeze their heads and be creative and come up with appropriate solutions.
