Commuting - More Fun in MNL

Have you ever thought of stopping time? In the Philippines, particularly in Manila, commuters often experience this which comes with the hellish struggle and agony. Based on my experience, from Upper Bicutan where it is only about 10 to 12 kilometers away to Ayala takes more than an hour on a weekday, especially during Mondays and Tuesday. However, whenever it's Pacquiao's game or during the holy week, my travel would only take approximately 20 minutes, which is just 33% of the travel time during weekdays. You would even see these timings when using Google Maps or Waze. In Singapore, for instance, travelling from Clementi to Bencoolen which is about 16 kilometers apart only takes 25 minutes during the city's busiest time (You can verify this using Google Maps) which is just 25% longer than my travel during a Pacquiao fight. Even when we're home, our Facebook and twitter feeds still bombard us with articles, posts, and pictures of Manila traffic. Commuting, or travelling along the city per se, is considered to be one of the most stressful work of the day, even more stressful than our daily job. Many people are vocal with their concerns with public transportation. Now, we should ask why there's still no action seeing that Manila's already a mess because of its horrible traffic?

According to Chavez from Manila Bulletin, a commuter group called RILES (Riles Laan sa Sambayanan Network) rebutted the alibis of the Aquino administration: Low fares are the main cause of LRT's lack of maintainance and retrogression. RILES spokesperson, otherwise, blames the government for neglecting and privatizing our critical means of transporation such as the LRT. Basically, our transit infrastructure (i.e. MRT, LRT, and PNR) is privatized and it received about 10% of the total 2015 transportation budget. Most of the funds were allocated to roads and highways which is inconvenient because the number of commuters exceed the number of car owners by more than 10 and more than half are minimum wage earners. Not only this is happening to our public transportation, the government privatized our main utilities such as water and power. In effect, we're paying our utilities way more than we should be. Read more on What you need to know about the LRT privatization deal which can surprise you or can ready you for the rest of 2016.

Ideally, the government should own the responsibility of managing our nation's utilities as they are considered basic needs - electricity, water, internet 😄. Kidding aside, if the government manages these resources, a number of positives will take into effect: prices are kept to a minimum, the revenue will employ quality maintenance, and increased mobility of people that promotes productivity.