My trip from Heart Center, Matalino Street, Quezon City to Sierra Madre Cafe behind Edsa in Mandaluyong City last Friday, Dec. 4 at 2:30 p.m. should have taken me less than an hour even at this time of the year when traffic is heaviest along Edsa.
With the Highway Patrol Group managing the traffic, I thought all I had to do was reach Edsa and—if lucky—drive straight away to the place in less than 30 minutes like in the good old days.
Instead, I did it in three hours, reaching at 5:30 p.m. this café owned by my Tarlaqueño friend Bayani Aquino who has always denied being related to the famous Aquinos even at the height of their popularity.
Upon reaching East Avenue, I was soon caught up in a non-moving traffic situation. I then decided that it was better turning right at BIR Road and then left at Quezon Avenue. To my horror, the traffic situation there was equally bad.
I thought it was better to turn left at Edsa and head toward Cubao, but before reaching Timog Avenue, I was again stuck in traffic.
I then decided to turn right at Eugenio Lopez Drive, ignored Samar Avenue, and after plodding along narrow roads made narrower by tricycles, parked cars, sidewalk shanties and people occupying them, I found myself at the Boy Scout Circle at Tomas Morato Avenue, ready to head for E. Rodriguez Sr. Avenue.
I had to first hurdle this traffic-clogged street before turning left at Gilmore Avenue. It was also full of slow-moving vehicles, so I took the streets around Mt. Carmel Church before hitting busy Aurora Boulevard.
After passing SM Centerpoint, I turned left at V. Mapa Street and skirted the motel section of Old Sta. Mesa. Fighting it out with jeepney drivers, I eventually reached Shaw Boulevard near the old Mandaluyong Mental Hospital.
Mandaluyong City Hall was just around the corner but because of some unfinished road constructions, I ended up in a long crowded street that cut across a “talipapa” where my car was the only vehicle curiously inching its way into the main street. By then, it had already gotten dark.
Finally, after getting directions from a group of “istambay,” I reached the circular road around Mandaluyong City Hall.
It was a place I least expected to see as the city hall of a local government unit that is headed by its mayor for 15 years who was once the concurrent head of the League of Cities and Union of Local Authorities of the Philippines—Mayor Benhur Abalos Jr.
Curiously, it was President Cory who appointed his father Benjamin Abalos—then a trial court judge—as Mandaluyong officer-in-charge immediately after the 1986 Edsa Revolution. Judge Abalos would be its elected mayor for nine years and chairman, briefly, of the Metro Manila Development Authority.
President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo would eventually appoint him chairman of the Commission on Elections, a post he had to resign because of his involvement in the Chinese ZTE Deal scandal.
The city was ranked best in “Quality of Life” by the Asian Institute of Management in 2007 and even earned the title “Tiger City” during Mayor Benhur’s incumbency.
Surely, these accolades were awarded not so long ago.
The city hall complex that I saw was surrounded by a lake of murky and stinky floodwater that unknowing motorists like me had to endure. Of course, the people who live nearby suffer more from these filthy conditions daily.
Disgusted, I stopped to ask bystanders how long the floodwater had been there. For months now, I was told, starting when the Department of Public Works and Highways began digging and unearthing the existing infrastructures.
The city is the lone district that House of Representatives Majority Floor Leader Neptali Gonzales II represents. Why he has tolerated this almost intentional wrecking job by DPWH is really a big wonder.
It couldn’t be because of politics. After all, the Abalos and Gonzales families have conveniently partitioned between themselves the city’s elective posts for decades now.
Maybe, both families only pay attention to the Mandaluyong segment of the affluent Ortigas Center on the other side of Edsa.
In any case, the economic successes of our key cities— Makati, San Juan, Quezon City and Davao City—cannot be attributed to the political family dynasties that have ruled over them for decades.
That they were these cities’ political leaders is only coincidental. The business tycoons were the ones who turned these cities into what they are today.
Mayor Digong Duterte is the exception. He deserves full credit for turning his once chaotic Davao City into a place of peace and prosperity.
I finally reached my friend’s café where he was patiently waiting. In jest, he commented that he feared I had proceeded to the Sierra Madre Mountains of Rizal.
In reply, I simply said –
“If I did, I would have reached it sooner.”
I just couldn’t tell him that I prefer going up there to drive along its traffic-free long and winding road and breathe its fresh mountain air.
