The Nerve Of This Man

I don’t normally blog about daily news and happenings here in our country  except for occasional posts on some politicians that I just can’t tolerate and the 42 days that I watched the daily hearings with mom when our former Chief  Justice Renato  Corona was impeached.  I did a daily post on that until the last day.  This morning, I was listening  to  the AM news and this caught my attention. A Metro Manila Development Authority traffic constable was assaulted by a guy driving a Ghibli Maserati. The traffic enforcer accosted the driver when he was trying to do a left-turn in one of the major streets in Quezon City. The motorist then went straight  ahead but made a U-turn, went to the traffic enforcer’s post, and gave him the dirty finger at the same time snatching his cellphone and punching  him on the nose three times while the car was cruising on auto pilot. He held him by his uniform and managed to drag him at least 10 meters from his post. The enforcer also recalled that the  driver removed his grey-blue shirt and threw it at him so he could wipe his bloodied face.

Does having a multi-million car in your possession gives you the right to disobey traffic rules and ignore a man in uniform? Does being rich makes you untouchable that you can do all you want  when you are out on the streets? MMDA Chairman Tolentino was fuming mad when he learned about this and with the help of the dealer of Maserati cars here in Metro Manila, they were able to trace the name of the car owner/motorist. According to reports, there are only two buyers/owners of such luxury sports cars so late this afternoon, they were able to zero in on the man. Come to think of it, his car doesn’t even have a car plate number.  There were several instances before very similar to this one, some of them even taking out their guns to instill fear on the hapless traffic enforcers.

Where is this world coming to? I hate to think that when money speaks (and I include our corrupt politicians here), good manners and values go to the dogs.  I am not generalizing since there are more moneyed individuals who help our economy grow. I am referring to those who lose their values when they display  what money can do for them.  They equate money with power. What they don’t know is, they could not bring it to their graves.

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Birthdays And Riding On LRTs

Yesterday,our little Nate turned two and we celebrated it quietly at home with a birthday lunch. Today, Josef and I visited their place to share another celebration with my son-in-law’s family. He finally got  to blow  a candle on his cake and mingle with other kids and his cousins. I think he enjoyed himself blowing the  #2 candle several times while Nissa took pictures. We’re teaching him how to answer  “I am two years old” with matching  index and middle fingers raised like a  letter V.

Did I tell you that I am afraid to take a commute alone when going to far places?  Most of the time, when Josef is free, we go together. After attending the early morning mass, we met at the EDSA Shrine. He came straight from a night shift  and it would save time than for me to wait for him to come home.  Going to Manila even on a Sunday is quite a challenge to one’s patience. I thought, people were out of the streets since for every scheduled Manny Pacquiao fight there is no traffic. It was the exact opposite though so we took the train (MRT) from Ortigas to Taft Avenue, another connecting train ride  (LRT 1) to Tayuman where we took a 10-minute jeepney commute to go to Tondo. On our way home, we  did the same,  taking LRT 1 to Doroteo Jose station then transferred to LRT 2 until we reached Santolan, the end station on the eastern side of Manila.  Josef laughingly told me that finally, I have  experienced going around all the stations of the  metro rail and light rail transits. Hooray!  Honestly, it is a bit hard to climb stairs to get to the next connecting ride.  Oh, my poor knees! Why are all the escalators not functioning? I can imagine the hardship of everyday ride for our public commuters but I  guess, it is the best option than taking a bus which also takes forever because of the traffic. Metro Manila is so congested.

So what’s new? Every year the government thinks of expanding the roads (and they do causing more traffic) but every year there are new cars too, truck bans are out of this world, smoke belching is an accepted norm and yes, sometimes traffic enforcers are not doing their jobs well.  If I can help it, I don’t like being in  a crowd of commuters, bumping elbows, jostling one another although at times it is more practical to commute than to bring a car where you’ll be stuck in traffic. The Metro Manila Development Authority and the big shopping malls in Metro Manila have agreed to adjust their opening time from 10am to 11am and they close at 11pm. I guess that is only for the Christmas season.  The big question is, will it change the traffic situation?

By the way, congratulations Manny! I wonder what Mayweather is thinking now.

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