Edsa as metaphor

You tell us not to complain about a few days of traffic and a few days of sacrifice, insensitive to the fact that we have been suffering the traffic for many years.

You tell us to give way to the leaders of the world, blind to the fact that we have been giving way to the privileged of this country for way too long.

You dismiss our frustrations as mere “ranting” or “complaining,” and accuse us of not being supportive of the government in organizing the Apec summit. But your dismissal tells us that you do not really understand where our anger is coming from.

Since 1986, when people marched in a show of “people power” to topple a corrupt dictatorship, Edsa has symbolized democracy, the coming together of people from all walks of life to improve our nation. With the new government came the hope that we might prosper together, and that the economic growth would benefit not just a select few, but the whole country.

But it did not take long for us to see through the failed promises of this supposed revolution. Corruption was not eradicated. Transportation projects, envisioned as early as the 1970s, were marred by corruption and inefficiency, delaying their implementation. The foresight that visionary leaders put to good use in other countries was nowhere to be found, and nobody had the courage to put the brakes on the uncontrolled growth and unplanned development of Metro Manila; it was only a matter of time before our transport systems, our roads, and our airport would exceed their “carrying capacities.”

“Edsa II” happened in 2001, another protest against a corrupt leader, but that, too, became a disappointment when the one who replaced the other turned out to be made of the same mold. While Edsa continues to be associated with democracy, the 23.8-kilometer highway has since come to symbolize the daily grind, the heavy traffic, and the unfair conditions in which members of the elite, with their convoys and sirens, could bully others into giving way, while stopgap solutions were favored over long-term plans.

The war against the “wang-wang” culture signaled a change of mindset, and it was welcomed as a sign that the government is finally seeing the roads as belonging to everyone. But as the traffic situation worsened, as the MRT train system repeatedly broke down, and as the airport terminals degenerated, it became clear that the transportation problem was not being dealt with adequately. Thus, while the GDP has increased, and while the Philippine economy has shown signs of promise in recent years, the quality of the people’s lives in the city has arguably worsened. Inclusive growth, of which the quality of public transport systems is a good measure, has not been felt by the people.

And while most of us are stuck in traffic, it is the poor who suffer more. While the rich can afford to engage in Facebook and Instagram inside their tinted, air-conditioned vehicles—and take faster routes—the rest of the people are left with only unsavory choices: standing in endless queues and cramming themselves in the few MRT trains available, or squeezing inside buses or jeepneys, enduring the pollution, the noise, the heat, and the even-longer travel times. Walking and biking can help solve the problem, but in the absence of the necessary infrastructure and culture for them, save from isolated and rarely-sustained efforts, the vision of a pedestrian- and biker-friendly city is still a pipe dream, and those who walk continue to do so at their peril: As many as 19 percent of the people who die on our roads were walking.

In this context, the image of an Edsa emptied to give way to VIPs strikes a raw nerve, not because we resent the arrival of the world’s leaders, but because we have never enjoyed the same mobilization of government resources to improve our daily lives.

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The importance of the Apec summit, especially during this crucial time when we need to rally support for our plea for a peaceful resolution of the territorial disputes in the West Philippine Sea, is something that we understand. We likewise understand the need for security: No one wants our country to suffer an international embarrassment. While many have taken to Facebook to air their grievances, it is worth noting that there were no riots or any form of violence when pedestrians were told that the roads were closed. People chose a venue to air their grievances in a way that would not be disruptive.

The support you ask of us has always been present—but not at the price of silence, not at the expense of muting our opinions on what could have been done: hosting the Apec summit elsewhere, declaring the entire week a holiday, and warning people more vigorously, ahead of time, of the inconveniences to come. It was the how, not the what, against which many of us were protesting.

More importantly, the rage doesn’t not just come from half a day of walking on Coastal Road, or the mere sight of a viral photo showing empty “Apec lanes” on Edsa.

If you truly understand what people living in the city are going through, then you will understand that Edsa is a metaphor of the things we have been enduring for far too long: the slow traffic throughout the metropolis, the slow Internet, the slow justice system, and everything else in our country that moves so painfully slow.

And if you regularly go through the miserable commute, then you will understand that the people’s anger over the few days of the Apec summit are an idiom of distress—a culmination of frustrations and heartaches over the social injustice of the privileged few breezing through the fast lane while the great multitude gets left behind.

Gideon Lasco is a physician and medical anthropologist.
Visit his website on health, culture and society at www.
gideonlasco.com.