LETTERS FROM THE AGNO

March L. Fianza
Killing Lapu-Lapu, choking Diego Silang

Experiencing traffic jams in the city at a time when these are least expected is nightmarish. It draws out anger and raises the blood pressure, if you do not die from that experience.

The traffic that locked at the intersection of Magsaysay Avenue and Rajah Matanda, the main entrance-exit to the Dangwa station nearly “killed” me. I timed the incident and it took around eight sweltering minutes for the traffic snarls to be untangled.

It did not only block vehicles entering Lakandula and Gen. Luna roads, it also stopped vehicles exiting from Rajah Soliman as it slowed down traffic flow from Harrison road all the way to Bonifacio and Rimando roads and the slaughter area.

Public utility vehicle drivers say that traffic congestions often occur in that section of the central business district everyday.

According to them, these are slowly untangled with the assistance of traffic cops while the riding public patiently waits. But it is not enough that we are easily contented with traffic attendants who untangle the pancit-like mess as there are positive solutions to easing that bottleneck.

I consider last Tuesday’s experience as something serious. That was only one day for me, but what for the others who can not escape using that route everyday? Serious it is but there are ready solutions that are worth considering. I suggest some politicians swallow their pride and restore what is missing and remove what has been overly done.

The first battle ever recorded in Philippine history was the killing of conquistador Ferdinand Magellan and his forces by Filipino-Muslims led by Mactan warrior Lapu-Lapu. The battle was in defense of freedom and sovereignty.

But true to the statement of one historian who said “we have honored the vanquished but not the victor,” we let Lapu-Lapu fade out from memory when we allowed a road that was named after him to be privatized inside the Baguio Center Mall. Lapu-Lapu street is now the center walkway of the Baguio Center Mall that is closed to the public at night.

Ironically, the Americans honored the Filipino-Muslim warrior that our officials “killed” and removed from the list of heroes, by naming a street in the neighborhood of San Francisco , California “Lapu-Lapu.”

Without any doubt, the construction of the Center Mall on the burnt area has dealt with a chaotic market situation. And granted that the city has the explicit power to close, lease or even sell roads, it was not good at that time to allow the builders to terminate Lapu-Lapu as a public road due to its necessity. The city council is the authority competent to determine whether or not a certain property is still necessary for public use.

The officials then saw in the Center Mall’s building plans that Lapu-Lapu road would eventually be gone because it would then be part of the new building. But no one raised a voice against the sale and closure of the public road even with the knowledge that Lapu-Lapu was necessary for public use in the future.

The same officials knew that the city lacked roads in the central business district and that traffic was not getting any better, yet they allowed the builders to close down Lapu-Lapu road.

That issue has not died until today. We are not saying that the officials then were bribed to keep their mouths shut, but no one from among the city hall honorables today is ready to question the deal on the closure and “sale” of Lapu-Lapu. By the way, we also wonder why the air space above Rajah Matanda, the entrance to the Dangwa terminal, is occupied by a part of the Center Mall.

If Lapu-Lapu is still “alive” as a public road today, I am sure we would not be experiencing as much traffic in that part of the central business district. But there is always a cure to the wrongs committed in the past – widen, improve and open as a public road the back street that connects Rajah Soliman and Dagohoy.

Another remedy is to reopen the egresses to all intersections in the market subdivision by demolishing the island of tomb-like flower boxes from the intersection of Rajah Matanda and Magsaysay all the way up front of the old Tiongsan.

It needs true political will to implement that but freeing Magsaysay road in front of the city market by removing the multi-million island will provide the much needed egresses that can allow vehicles to turn around during traffic jams and other emergencies such as fire incidents and heart attacks.
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Motorists have been observing that jeepneys bound for Trancoville or Aurora lord over public roads as they can just load and unload anywhere but that is an old scene. The newest one is that armored vans that ferry the goods of Banco de Oro have been choking and constricting Diego Silang as if the road has become their private property.

The armored vans have become the new owners of Diego Silang, occupying every corner of the road fronting the DENR office which prevents other cars, clients and employees and other establishments from parking. Even the parking lot that was paved by DENR employees for their use is now occupied by the armored cars.

Adding insult to injury, traffic cops assigned in the area come by to remove the plates of cars parked along the same road but do not care to go all the way up to where the armored vans are choking Diego Silang. And so the armored vans constrict the road as they please with no fear of apprehensions by traffic cops. How much? – marchfianza777@yahoo.com