Even a ‘voice in the wilderness’ can be heard

This is a reaction to Oscar Franklin Tan’s article titled “Death by traffic” (Opinion, 9/1/14).

I agree! Definitive and immediate action—NOW. And it is striking how we take this “slow torture” for granted. Just to give you one example: Our Capitol Hills Drive in Quezon City has become a very busy thoroughfare.

Seeing, observing and experiencing the problem, this 93-year-old grandmother took it upon herself to write to the public officials concerned to suggest solutions to the traffic woes in that particular area. Simple solutions like: delineating and constructing proper sidewalks and bicycle lanes so these will encourage people to walk or bike short distances; relocating the squatters blocking the road at the corner to provide a faster right turn to C-5 extension; and banning private vehicles from condominiums from making the side of the drive their parking lot.

Do you know the replies I received? The Department of Public Works and Highways and the City Engineers Office said Capitol Hills Drive is a private road and government funds cannot be used to implement my solutions to improve traffic!

Now I ask: Since when did a thoroughfare used for past decades, by people who pay

taxes, become a private road? Granting there is a claimant, why can’t the government

confiscate/expropriate this to provide people better access to their homes? This is what I mean by apathy, and on the part of government officials at that!

One consolation I got: The chair of the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA), Francis Tolentino, sent his men to me, bringing with them the handwritten letter I wrote him about a simple traffic hazard at our village entrance gate! Solved! The MMDA representative went to the owners of the vehicles of the condominium.

Also, our active barangay chair, Allan Franza of Matandang Balara, sent his staff to do what I requested: to remove the small billboards nailed on the trees along Capitol Hills Drive. The billboards were nailed without barangay permits. And the trees died!

Why am I writing this feedback? To prove that even just a “voice in the wilderness,” like my letters to public officials, is acted upon, one way or another. Let us not be apathetic.

Let us solve our problems NOW.

Not TOMORROW!

—CONSUELO D. SISON,

[email protected]