Waiting for the Bus (With Apologies to the Eraserheads)

The other day, I found myself walking almost two kilometers from the office to a bus stop along Edsa. I was to go to the printing press to pick up a job. I haven’t commuted along Edsa for a while now, and I was not really surprised with all the rows of steel nets strewn along the historical highway.

Even when I was at the university, I preferred commuting on ordinary buses. Fare is cheaper, and ordinary buses are patently faster than their air-conditioned kin.

Imagine my anger when I found out that there were no bus stops beneath the MRT Ortigas Station. I was peeved that I had walked all the way from the office to Edsa near Robinson’s Galleria, only to find out that I still had to walk to Megamall to ride an ordinary passenger bus.

Apparently, that part of Edsa had been reserved for the car-riding minority making a right-turn toward the Asian Development Bank.

Even at Rosario in Pasig City, the government would rather have commuters wait for a ride without shelter from either the sun or the rain.

This probably happens around the metropolis — commuters, taxpayers all, helplessly waiting for a ride in very uncomfortable locations.

We live in a tropical country. Our weather is not pleasant — it is either humid or wet. Walking along streets without benefit of shade makes our armpits sweat buckets. Waiting for a ride on the street without benefit of shade burns our skin and makes us less “maputi.”

Still, we wait. We don’t begrudge this regime for wasting our income taxes. We don’t give a hoot about the lies and the scandals that pester this government.

We wait. (Ronald B. Escanlar/pinoypress.net)

Visit the author’s blog at kwadernongbilog.blogspot.com.