Mmdaunforgivable_4

Starting Tuesday morning (August 5), Katipunan Avenue has been a more pathetic sight and a more stressful experience for motorists who have been plying the stretch for, say, a lifetime! For those who cruised on that avenue for the first time that day, they could have mumbled all sorts of curses for getting trapped in such a miserable spot because those who were used to the previous route have.

The reason? Well, the fantastic MMDA closed the last U-turn slots that could’ve saved the last drop of gasoline in someone’s tank. There used to be five U-turn slots along Katipunan (Ateneo-Miriam College area): one fronting Ateneo,  three along the Miriam College frontage, and one in front of La Vista’s gate. The MMDA closed down two slots in the middle, leaving the one in front of Ateneo and two others way off farther Miriam’s gate ― one for each side of the street.

In a whiff, MMDA closed all three remaining U-turn slots and planted concrete slabs in the middle without bothering to come up with any announcements at all to those who will be affected. For seemingly, they want to give us.

All motorists will now take U-turns from the one end under the fly-over at the Aurora Avenue intersection and the other just right after the C.P. Garcia Avenue junction. Naturally, traffic jams on both sides ensued during the rush hours, which, in the Katipunan area, are morning, noon, and night. It is now a nightmare to be caught in the area during those times.

That road to and from Aurora Avenue, on both sides of the the flyover, only holds two lanes. It is impossible to smoothly accommodate traffic on both sides without the service provided by the already closed U-turn slots. The MMDA should know how these things work; if it doesn’t, then it should at least get into the habit of studying the mechanisms of such matters. No development will take place if it just keeps throwing its weight around. Its authority must work, not displace nor destroy.

We had been long-suffering with the MMDA’s overbearing attitude in changing and re-defining traffic routes and painting pink lines on sidewalks, let alone its senseless devices planted in the middle of our highways. We had been so patiently keeping up with the MMDA’s ugly contraptions on the streets: its tasteless advertisements on dress codes, on sidewalk usage and of Bayani Fernando.

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Mmdaunforgivable_2

We could take all that, albeit with too much acid rising from our bellies; but adding more gas in our tanks, just so one can reach the closest U-turn slot that is so jam-packed because three or four other highly valuable U-turn slots in the middle were closed, so that we can go by our daily routines, that is so unforgivable, so irresponsible, so unthought-out.  And for those who don’t want to be caught in that wretched trap under the bridge, they will have to go farther ― to the next U-turn slot on the Katipunan-Boni Serrano intersection!

With the price of gas crazily sky-rocketing because of external factors and the fashionable workings of Republic Act 8479, a.k.a. the oil deregulation law, the MMDA is an unnecessary burden to our already extremely heavy yokes.

Also, we cannot take its inhumane act of driving out sidewalk vendors and destroying their wares around the metropolis. This agency has gone mad. It is a barbaric and arrogant institution! The people of Metro Manila should start reviewing the mandate that created this monster (Metro Manila Destructive Authority, photos grabbed from GMA’s 24 Oras).

It is time this agency is stripped of too much of the power it assumes, or should I say, it enjoys. It is time we stop tolerating it, too.