Streets are for Pedestrians Too!

This was the sentiment that hundreds of persons with disability (PWD) delivered to the offices of the MMDA yesterday following a treacherous trek through EDSA. The PWDs literally snaked through the behemoth buses, further risking injury, just to reach their destination. The march (more hobble, actually) underscored their plight. Because of the pink fences and foot bridges that the agency has erected city-wide, roads were rendered unnavigable for PWDs.

I have long brought up this issue among my peers and anybody else who would care to listen. In fact, two years ago, I complained to the MMDA citing that the footbridges were a bane to the elderly and the disabled. Through SMS, the MMDA suggested that they (PWDs) should seek the assistance of traffic enforcers who will then escort them across the street at ground level. I indicated that no enforcers could be found. To this the MMDA replied “pasensiya na lang kayo" (akin to saying “we’re unable to do anything about it so that’s it… goodbye!”).

I was infuriated! This was a violation of the law and completely unacceptable!

Pedestrians contribute to the traffic problem, I admit that; but, they are not the sole cause of it. For the large part, undisciplined drivers are more to blame. Therefore, pedestrians should not be made to bear the brunt of the ill effects of any remedy. The MMDA has practically banned people from the roadways, making them the exclusive domain of vehicle owners. How fascist!

Rather than building foot bridges (which I reckon cost hundreds of millions of pesos) the more practical solution should have been strict enforcement of traffic rules and regulations. Posting a couple of traffic enforcers, who know their jobs and perform them honestly, at each critical or problematic crossroad, is more economical than building these monstrosities. A year or two of faithful enforcement of the law, I truly believe, will educate and discipline both motorists and pedestrians; making both the bridges and enforcers unnecessary. The root of the problem is inadequate law enforcement!

These stupid traffic management schemes are neither scientifically proven nor are they effective; not one of them! They are all being implemented for one purpose and one purpose alone - to make money. Someone is raking in tons of mullah from all these civil works! Whose family is involved in the business of construction anyway?

Do the math… how much more do we spend for these civil works vis-à-vis the salaries of a couple of hundred enforcers over, say, five years? The civil works are more expensive, aren’t they? And they don’t solve the basic problem – lack of road discipline!

So why do you think the more expensive solution was selected?

POSTSCRIPT: Early this evening the “MMDA German” was interviewed on TV and actually confirmed my earlier statements. The agency he heads, and himself in particular, does not give a damn about the plight of PWDs. "You can’t have everything you want" was basically what he said, referring to the protesters. This only proves that this delusional sorry excuse for a public servant should be booted out of his office and dunked in the Tulyahan River along with the garbage his agency has consistently failed to dispose of properly. He does not deserve any respect; hell, he doesn’t deserve to be a member of the human race!

Mass Mediocre

Have you noticed how much TV news has deteriorated over the last couple of decades? If you’re too young to know the difference, let me educate you.

In the years before the 1990s, prime time news was delivered by well-trained professional presenters like Bong Lapira, Harry Gasser, Frankie Evangelista, Dong Puno and Tina Monson-Palma in a formal manner; much like the way it is done today by big international networks such as CNN and BBC without, of course, the high tech bells and whistles.

News presenters were a beautiful lot. They were carefully selected from among the better looking members of the population. They were highly educated and knowledgeable about current events. They were always well-dressed (in business suits) and properly groomed when presenting. In short, news anchors and correspondents then were good looking, well-educated, properly attired and believable.

English news was presented in plain English while Filipino news was presented in formal (as opposed to colloquial) Pilipino. Slang wasn’t used, except in quotations, and Taglish or Engalog was NEVER EVER used!

Entertainment, lifestyle and other trivial news was left for the latter part of the broadcast (time permitting) and never as part of the main news program. Therefore, watching prime time news then, one would not have become aware of the back-and-forth between Ruffa Gutierrez and his Turkish spouse; and no one would have cared.

Today, our news programs are peppered with showbiz scandals and trivia reports masquerading as news, reported by correspondents who look more like our domestics and speak with the same accents. No longer do these pseudo-journalists strive, or even pretend, to prepare for, nor research the news they report; or, at the very least the proper pronunciations of the words they use! Just last night, a senior news anchor (once a congressman even!) pronounced St. Tropez as saint tropis! To think that his network’s mother company is also an internet service provider; it would have taken just a few keystrokes to learn what the proper pronunciation was.

News correspondents don’t even care to dress properly nor act in proper decorum. And the networks don’t seem to care anymore how their presenters and correspondents look like!

Why is appearance so important? Look at the other TV news networks in the world. Their correspondents could pass as models. They go to the extent of dolling you up (as in the case of Veronica Pedrosa, originally with CNN now with Al Jazeera) to bring out the best in you. This is done because when you are presenting the news, you are also presenting your country or organization.

In today’s world where we shoot up all our broadcasts into space and are retransmitted by satellite all over the world, it pays to put your best foot forward at all times! Unfortunately, what we are presenting to the world are not our crème de la crème, rather, the least common denominators (easily identifiable by the masses) who are maybe not the worst but are certainly far from being the best!

How credible would a correspondent be if he were dressed inappropriately, could speak either English or Pilipino fluently or went on air unprepared (such as the infamous Michael Fajatin fiasco below)? What impression would they leave on a viewer from a foreign land? Would that not validate the oft repeated slur that Filipinos live in trees?

Putting your best foot forward?

I haven’t even scratched the surface of this mass mediocrity. We haven’t even discussed the idiocy of what stands for our daily fare of prime time news. That will be for another time.

Till then, ciao!

What's in a name?

Hello! Welcome to my first blog.

My daughter has been bugging me for years to host my own blog. Owing to a very busy schedule, I have put off the idea in the back burner waiting for the day when I would have a surplus of time. But I knew that day would never come because one never really runs out of things to do. So I had to make time!

What is filotaz? It is merely a play with the words Pilosopong Tasyo. What makes it significant is that children of Filipino migrants in most parts of the English speaking world refer to themselves as filos. And this blog is about the Philippine experience.

In the next few weeks, I will strive to put into words ideas that have been festering in my mind over the past few months. Mostly, these will be critical observations of life in the city: traffic, politics, mass media, etc. I will strive to be fair. However, I must warn you, I tend to get riled and overly emotional when the topics cuts close to home.

Thank you for your time. Feel free to drop in any time and tell your friends about my blog.

BTW, thanks to my friend Beng O. for the Rizal image I used in the masthead. I did the artwork myself and would explain the elements in a later post.