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This is the peak of MMDA’s show of arrogance, ego-tripping and defiance to public expression against the infuriatingly stupid scheme it set last week. Its men even had the audacity to use for its dim-witted U-turn closure conspiracy the line “for the good of the many”. (That brought to mind Jack Nicholson in “A Few Good Men” when he screamed “You can’t handle the truth!” at Tom Cruise.) And continued to reason out that only residents of Xavierville and La Vista are the ones complaining! (Read article.)

Hello? If the residents of Katipunan cannot do their daily jobs efficiently because of the brainless manipulation of traffic routes, isn’t that tantamount to economic sabotage? Plus, as I will keep on saying, the additional spending on gas brought about by this injudicious act of an ego-centered agency when we are in deep crisis already in all aspects of our daily affairs.

MMDA also claims that commuters find the new Katipunan traffic system fine. Hu-whatttt?! The commuters are themselves stuck in the confusion! Which commuters are they referring to, anyway?

The issue is Katipunan Avenue, sirs. You can’t displease motorists, commuters, businessmen, students, and residents on Katipunan Avenue so you could please those who will go to Marcos Highway for the opening of the new SM-Marikina, which will also create another foreseeable chaos.

I wasn’t able to contain myself this morning as I had to go to the hospital for a checkup and saw the gridlock inching under the flyover bridge to Aurora Avenue while there was only one tight lane left for those bound for C-5; where six-or-more lanes bottle necked towards the two-lane road to Aurora (for
the right turn) and the one-lane route under the bridge for the U-turn, I had to scream.

Mga walang-hiya! Mga bastos! I’m sure they’ve been hearing harsher words since last week. The MMDA men were just watching the muddle going on right before their very eyes. They were doing practically nothing! An ambulance, in desperate blast of siren, was caught in the middle of this mad ordeal. I just couldn’t imagine what the patient inside had in mind.

This is MMDA’s definitely splendid act of abuse of power and disregard to public thrust!

There is a culture permeating among MMDA men I noticed this afternoon as I walked from my clinic on Katipunan. There were a number of them along the avenue (they were playing a numbers game, I presume, with infuriated motorists), feeling busy but were really doing nothing, just staring at the confusion they inflicted. They have that sense of pride, an air of something, I don’t even know where it’s coming from after all the disaster they have started. No wonder some of their men get into some fix with other law enforcers. Arrogance and ego-tripping sweep within its ranks like a disease. What a shame.

Mind you, Katipunan Avenue, the national road, has no traffic problems until MMDA’s thoughtless execution came in, contrary to what the agency’s bigwigs claim:

If we have to abandon the scheme completely, we’ll do so. We’re here to improve traffic, not to worsen the situation. (Full article.)

Duh-huh! And for someone to run for public office come 2010, the least he could do is ire the voters. Voters remember and they never forget who NOT to elect. Well, the SM-Marikina is a good fall back for a lame duck, evidently.

Above are some shots I took from 6:15 a.m. to about 9 a.m. this morning. The foolish traffic scheme created this horrible traffic jam until 12 noon. How long before this stupid plotters realize their folly? I don’t think these losers will unless they get themselves in the middle of this MMDA-made rut, which, by the way, is their brainchild.

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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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.

As I stepped out of the house yesterday afternoon to send my daughter to summer class, I was so shocked to find a long stretch of pink line on my way. Around Quezon City, I haven’t seen much pink around. Oh, yeah, there are those monstrous overpasses in the Cubao-EDSA area. That pink only the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) loves and paints around town ― starting off with Marikina City when then MMDA chairperson Bayani Fernando was still the town’s CEO. At the helm of MMDA now for some time and with quite a few months left before he relinquishes it to a new one, he has painted some sidewalks with that same pink that is starting to become an eyesore already rather than pretty.

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I just don’t know how much police power the agency can exercise for seemingly it can just violate beautiful architectural façades. And for what? Traffic discipline? Instilling traffic discipline in the
metropolis, where traffic is truly something you have to consider in your business plans or any plans these days, is a far-fetched issue for a government agency to smear anything on anybody’s frontage. Someone’s property rights (or even intellectual property rights) were violated when frontages can just be used for government graffiti.

MMDA should make better plans than this. Not everyone likes overpasses coated in pink or pink road fences to keep public utility vehicles in their lanes; but that was made possible because they were done on the streets ― government property. The yellow lanes are enough; if traffic is still a headache, ticket the violators, give the bus companies or jeepney organizations some ultimatum so they can place their erring drivers under disciplinary action. Discipline on the streets does not start with pink painted everywhere; it starts with the person by proper instruction. For all we know, this country can be so literally pink but road discipline will not have been achieved.

Traffic laws are enough to keep private, public utility drivers, and transport operators in check. What of the color-coding scheme? The implementation of such laws is oftentimes duplicated around the metro that violators feel so lost re-claiming their licenses or processing their tickets; why on earth does MMDA have to paint off the streets and into one’s property?

This ‘pink revolution’ ― if that is what is called by its planners and its executor ― is not pretty. That act is scary. It is a precedent to what else MMDA can do.