Traffic Summit

The MMDA and other government agencies will be holding a "traffic summit" to solve, well, the traffic problem in Metro Manila. The best way to approach this is to do a baseline of how traffic in this metropolis behaves and what makes it behave so.

Like our body, this megalopolis of 17 cities, 12 million people and millions of cars, have veins, arteries and capillaries that brings life giving blood to all parts of the body. A block in one of these conduits affects the flow of the entire system and the health if the body. Severe blockages even cause the entire system to stop. The difference between Metro Manila and You is that only you are the manager of your own body, no one else. So if your body does not function as it should, you only have yourself to blame. Metro Manila however is a conglomerate.

Traffic on national roads is managed by the MMDA. Traffic elsewhere is managed by the LGUs. The roads are built by the DPWH but maintenance is the responsibility of the MMDA and the LGUs. The DOTC manages the vehicles that run on the roads, both public and private vehicles. Utility companies, (electricity, water and telecoms) all have access to the roads and dig them up when they need to.

First question: Do all these agencies coordinate? Doesn't look like it.

Case One: As soon as a road is completed, along come the water utilities to dig up the newly paved road. They dig up parallel along one side of the road where they lay the main water pipe and then dig across the road to bring water from that pipe to each house across the street. After laying the pipes, the contractors pour cement over the digs. This is mostly done without science or skill. Masabi lang na ginawa.

Case Two: Different sets of rules for different cities. No window for coding in Makati for example. And there are exemptions to coding. Malakas ka, exempted ka.

Case Three: Bus Lanes. It doesn't take brains or a lot of research to know that buses along EDSA are the lords of anarchy. Traffic along EDSA is caused by buses: they use up most of the lanes in the major transit points along EDSA, because the drivers and conductors are paid via commissions, which depend on the number of passengers they can pick up, they race to each transit point where passengers converge and stay there to get their fill, creating long queues of empty buses and spilling out of the bus lanes into the other lanes. If you're southbound on EDSA, the first choke point is Balintawak, there, buses which occupy three lanes connive with the Cloverleaf market vendors and customers to block EDSA. Result: one to two lanes left for everyone else, including the thousands of vehicles coming from the north through NLEX who have just come onto EDSA from the Cloverleaf interchange. Next bottleneck, "Royal" a bus stop in between Balintawak and "Munoz". Next bottleneck, Munoz, where EDSA and San Francisco del Monte meet. One to two lanes. Next, a series of bottlenecks: the series of 3 U-Turn slots in front of the North SM Annex. If you're skillful and anarchic, from Munoz, you work your way through the leftmost lane of EDSA then "change lanes" to the right (not swerve) as you approach the U-Turn slots, to avoid the merging vehicles, tis brings you into the bus lane. As soon as you pass the first U-Turn slot, driving in the right lane, you dive back into the left lane as there's more space there because the cars coming out of the U-Turn are in first gear therefore slower, while you, coming from the bus lane, slingshot into the spaces. You do this three times and this series of skillful, unlawful maneuvers, brings you to where EDSA curves to the right as it meets West Ave. Here, you have to again dive into the right lane as vehicles coming fro West Ave are cutting across EDSA to make a U-Turn in front of Trinoma. So the EDSA flow is cutting across the West Ave flow. Again, if you;re skillful, right at the point where the U-Turn slot is, you should be in the second lane from the right, ready to slingshot into the freer 4th and 5th lanes on the left to avoid the bus stop just after the U-Turn. After the bus stop its free sailing along EDSA, over the flyover on Quezon Ave. On the flyover, watch if there's a bus on the right most lane of the flyover. If there is a bus in that lane, move out of that lane and stay in the middle lane because as soon as the bus reaches the foot of the flyover, its going to dive into the bus stop at the bottom, just after Mother Ignacia. Your skillful driving has brought you to the middle lane of EDSA approaching GMA7. For some reason, along this stretch of EDSA between Quezon Ave and Timog, the slower vehicles stay in the fast lane (the lane on the left) and the faster vehicles use the lanes on the right. Next bottleneck is at GMA7. Here's where it gets tricky. For buses, this is a decision point. Do I take the Timog flyover and rush to Cubao, passenger central or do I stay on EDSA "sa ilalim ng flyover" where I can get trawl for passengers by moving slow starting from GMA7 to Kamuning the blasting to Cubao. Some buses decide at the last moment and zoom out of the bus lane into the flyover in the last 10 meters or so, cutting across EDSA at 45 degrees, eating up three lanes, punching the accelerator as the bus goes uphill, creating a cloud of black death on its way to Cubao. Cubao is the Mother of all bus stops. It is so rich with passengers that bus companies decided to put their terminals in a 500 meter stretch of EDSA, Victory Liner, Baliwag, Dagupan, etc. So during long vacations, Holy Week, Undas, Christmas, New Year, long weekends, these areas, already congested on ordinary days transform into chaos. All this means that, unless you were born lucky, thew traffic that Cubao creates meets you at the foot of the Timog flyover. If you want to make it out of Cubao after the P. Tuazon underpass, stay in the left most lane. If not, all you will do is avoid buses which swerve back into EDSA after lurking for passengers in the bus lane. Plus you don't want to cut your car in half on those pink MMDA barriers which are supposed to keep the buses in their lanes but don't. You also want to stay in the left lane because they are slightly better paved than the right lanes. But stay out of the second lane from the left as you go through the P.Tuazon underpass as a manhole cover or drain, 4 inches deep and three feet wide has been living there for years. From the P.Tuazon underpass, EDSA emerges as a 7 lane wide thoroughfare. But only for a few hundred meters. Because all that traffic then squeezes into the three lanes of the Santolan flyover, yes, including the buses which, again, swerve into the flyover from the bus lane as they don't want getting stuck in Santolan. As you go down the Santolan flyover, EDSA stays a three lane road until you get past the MMDA pink fences that stretch until Annapolis. After Annapolis, its a wide EDSA again until Connecticut where the buses converge with the traffic coming out of Greenhills. To get past this easily, you must position yourself on the left lane from Annapolis. But get out of the left lane after Connectocut because if you don't you'll find yourself on the flyover sweeping to left onto Ortigas going to Pasig. If you do, you'll be approaching the Ortigas flyover. Stay in the left most lane as you go up the flyover to avoid he buses swerving into EDSA from the bus lane before Ortigas. Slow down on the Ortigas flyover as the bridge connections have been asphalted over and are two inches high and cut across the entire flyover. Its violent if you're traveling at speed. If your car survives the Ortigas flyover, you are now coming onto another wide expanse of EDSA across from Megamall. You'll still want to stay on the left as there is a bus stop under the Ortigas MRT station fronting Megamall. The lanes of EDSA again becomes three lanes as it goes into the Shaw underpass. And here, in the dimly lit underpass, lies the greatest mystery of EDSA. Starting from where the underpass begins up to the end as you emerge into EDSA in front of Mercury Drug on the corner of Libertad, EDSA is perfectly and consistently smooth paved asphalt. It has been maintained for some years now. Just this part of EDSA. Really strange. But after this stretch, back to rumbly concrete. Next major bottleneck is Boni Ave. The trick here is to say in the innermost lane, the left lane because that is the only lane left for everyone else as buses occupy all other lanes at the Boni bus stop. After Boni, you make your way to Guadalupe and keep to the left lane as in Guadalupe, again only the left most lane is moving. The next bottleneck is the Buendia junction where vehicles decide whether to take the bus lane or the lane which goes under the Kalayaan flyover. Sometimes, they decide at the last moment. Be ready to be surprised. After the Buendia junction, its free sailing towards Ayala where you're usually met with the traffic buildup from Magallanes. But before you get to Magallanes, you'll have to make your way through the longest, darkest and most dangerous tunnel on EDSA, the Ayala-Pasay Road tunnel. For the entire 400 meter or so stretch of the tunnel, there are less than ten filth covered lights. And don't stay in the fast lane, the left most lane, because if you do, you die. Right in the middle of the dark tunnel, the left lane ends into a retaining wall. At least someone thought of piling sand bags against the wall to soften your impact. But the sandbags have been there for so long they're as hard as the concrete wall. If you survive the Ayala underpass, you come out onto the brightness of EDSA and if you're going to Baclaran or taft, you will want to say in the left lane because of you don't the flow will take you to Alabang via SLEX but that's another horror story. And you will want to avoid the bus stop just before Pasong Tamo. If you're going to SLEX, you maneuver towards the right, hug the lane just adjacent to the bus lane then dive into the on ramp which will take you to the left and onto SLEX. If you're going to Taft, stay in the left lane and you'll find yourself on the two lane Magallanes overpass. Another EDSA mystery. Running all along the edge of the right lane on the overpass is what looks like an ancient railroad. I can't figure it out. I of course haven't had the chance to stop on top of the flyover to investigate. After the mystery that is the Magallanes flyover, you will come down into the Pasay City EDSA. Again, after the flyover, stay on the left to avoid the bus stop on the right. But go back to the right if you are going to taft because if you stay on the left, you will end up the the Domestic airport. All vehicles going to Taft squeeze into two lanes, one for buses, the other for buses and jeepneys and everyone else. Yes, jeepneys have joined on EDSA after Magallanes. Tricycles too. Pasay is the place to be. As you make your way along whats left of EDSA as you run parallel to the flyover going to the airport, another EDSA mystery. Under the flyover, there are cars parked. Yes there are cars parked on Pasay's portion of EDSA. Just before you reach Taft, EDSA becomes five lanes again but the lane usage here is uniquely Pasay. On the three right most lanes are jeeps and "FXs" waiting for passengers, a "terminal" of sorts. After crossing Taft, EDSA flows into what looks like as river delta, a wide expanse of concrete, populated by jeepneys, buses, tricycles criss-crossing EDSA, the flow dissipating into confusion as the vehicles reach the sea.

You see, this chaos is the result of non-cohesion among government agencies. Buses can do what they want. Cars can do what they want. the MMDA can do what it wants. The LGUs can do what they want. The Police can do what they want. Every vehicle can do almost anything on EDSA and on any other road in this Metropolis where the red light is just a suggestion to stop.

Cars park on sidewalks forcing pedestrians onto the streets where they risk getting run over by speeding jeepneys, tricycles and cars.

The increasing number of motorcycles has also resulted in a huge increase in road mishaps. Motorcycle riders seem to think that the right most lane is the passing lane. That's the lane you don't expect anyone to overtake you.

There are roads which are "one way" except to tricycles. There are roads closed so jeepneys can take on passengers. In San Juan, the LGU allows parking on both sides of the narrowest of roads.

All motorists think that turning on the hazard light is a license to obstruct the flow of traffic.

What should be done at the traffic summit is to first make an inventory of all the road rules which are NOT being followed and who the usual suspects are and where these offenses are committed. When this metrowide inventory is complete, the next step is to pinpoint accountability and effect change. The implementation of this disciplinary action should be consistent from day one. Only then will there be a cultural change in the streets. When we start respecting the laws of the road and each other, when "maka-isa" becomes "magkaisa", then we will have solved the largest cause of Metro Manila's traffic.

Sunsets can be gregarious, vivacious and opulent even. Sunrises on the other hand are subtle affairs. There's a softness in sunrises which just rightly and gently brings you into the new day. It is when time and place are both suspended and restless, the night laboring to give birth to a new day. But like sunsets, every moment of a sunrise is different. Every second is a second in motion, on so large a scale that humans can only perceive it over a long period. But try taking a photograph every three seconds or so and look at the photos after. It is only then that the insiduous character of change can be observed. Clouds of mist change the fastest, enslaved by the wind and changes in the atmosphere, they take on a different shape every second, always there but never the same. Water dances to a steadier beat, drummed by far off tradewinds and transcontinental currents. Land is slowest of all. Motion so slow no man or series of photographs can be witness to its gentle grind. But every moment is a world in itself. And for this second, inside a Silent Turquoise morning in Boracay, time and motion stood still.

Losers and Cheaters and a Reversed Process

Most of the politicians who go to Teddy Boy Locsin's committee hearing complain about being "cheated" in the elections because they were approached by election fixers before the elections offering them various schemes. They should all be charged with electoral fraud which carries a penalty of up to life imprisonment.

Take the case of a Vice mayoral candidate from Laguna who went to the hearings and said that he wanted to help the country by reporting what happened to him. He went on to tell his story of being approached by someone who offered him two schemes so he would win using the AES. He said the initial offer was 30 million which went down to P500,000.00. This politician was not the first to come out in public with stories of these shady characters who went around before the elections promising effective cheating through the AES.

First, all of them should be charged with electoral fraud as they knew of the schemes, which now look more like scams, and did nothing about it. In fact, they met with these characters several times and in the case of the Laguna vice mayor, haggled for a lower price. Their "expose's"only tell part of what must have really taken place. What were the conversations like during those meetings? Obviously, they were cordial, business like, with them as clients buying products for sale. Only in their cases, the products were illegal.

They lost and deservedly so. But to foist upon this nation their sudden gush of patriotism by "reporting", post fact, the cheaters and schemers is arrogance to say the least and stupid at best. They should be charged for treason.

Almost a month after the elections, in the context of a congressional oversight hearing, the charges and stories from these politicians may seem mere irritants which amaze, sometimes amuse. But let's put it in context.

Let us not lose the importance of the timing of the events. They were allegedly approached by the fixers and schemers months before the elections. These months before the elections were the most critical. This was the time when no one knew how the AES would behave. This was the time when the I.T. experts headed by Gus Lagman were clamoring for a full manual count. This was the time when they were asking that the Source Code be made public. This was the time that the transmission systems were being questioned. This was the time when the Comelec and Smartmatic took away the safeguards from the system. This was the time when the head of the Comelec Committee in charge of printing the ballots was not sure if the ballots could be printed on time. This was the time when the PCOS machines were not delivered by the Taiwanese subcontractor. This was the time when the teachers did not know what role they would play in the AES or how the AES would work. This was the time that at the Noynoy Aquino Camp, we were preparing for the worst. This was the time when so many were not discounting the possibility of a "No-El" and the resulting revolution of the streets. If these politicians went public then, the effect of their expose's would have the effect of ice water on white hot steel. It would have stopped the Comelec and Smartmatic dead in their tracks and the automated elections would have not been and the revolt of the streets would have ushered in change faster than the turtles at congress. The very stories they tell would have been patriotic and heroic two months ago. Today, they can be basis for treason. By keeping quiet then, they became accessories to the rape of the system. By keeping quiet then, they served only their selfish interests. By speaking out today, they continue to serve their selfish interests, always at the expense of taxpayers - the very people who they represent and who they should have protected from these shadow players. They should name names and bring these criminals to justice.

A Quiet Explosion

We had just finished eating a breakfast of rice, canned sardines, eggs and coffee. The teams had just hopped into their vehicles and went into the danger zone, as they had done for the past 8 days. I was testing the two-way radio which kept us in touch with the newsroom 250 kilometers away in Quezon City, a small feat of engineering I would say, achieved by tying a 16 element Yagi antenna on the tip of a 20 foot bamboo pole. In front of me was a volcanologist from the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology. He too was radioing-in morning update. I finally got a signal through and had confirmation that I was going to report live for a new bulletin. Ces Drilon was anchoring the news bulletin and I was giving her an update on the condition of Mt. Pinatubo. Ces asked me 'Jing, so when do we expect the volcano to erupt?'. I answered 'There's no way of telling Ces, It may be in 3 weeks, 3 days or 3 hours'. I stopped in the middle of my report as the volcanologist in front of me was frantically pointing to something behind me. I turned around and saw a huge spherical cloud rising from the top of Mt. Pinatubo.

It was 8:33am, June 12, 1991. The cloud kept rising and it looked like all the images of large explosions I have seen in pictures, taking on a mushroom shape while looking like dark grey broccoli flowers. We were 21 kilometers away from the volcano but the size of the cloud made it look so much closer and seem to move in slow motion. I was doing my best to estimate the height of the cloud as I reported. Before the cloud reached 20,000 feet, a thin white cloud formed above the volcano and as the eruption column neared it, a hole formed in the middle of the thin layer and the eruption column went through it and kept rising. I was walking out from under the roof of the shed where we camped to get a better look at what was now a mushroom cloud filling most of the sky above us. As the cloud reached what I believed to be the stratosphere, it started to spread in all directions. Take a wide empty glass bottle and fill it with water then slowly and steadily pour black ink into the water. As soon as the ink hits bottom it will spread in every direction. Invert this image and this is what was happening in front of us but on a scale a million times larger.

As I continued with my report, something struck me. It was quiet. Except for the sound of a platoon of people from media, there was nothing out of the ordinary. No rumbling thundering sound we have learned to associate with large explosions. Nothing. The cloud now almost completely filled the sky above us. It had gone past us and we were 21 kilometers from the volcano. So the cloud at this point had spread more than 21 kilometers in every direction or a diameter of 40 plus kilometers. All this in a matter of a few minutes.

Photographers were on their backs on the ground training their wide angle lenses at an image they could not capture. No lens is wide enough to capture an image as wide as the visible sky without distorting it. Then someone from the news pack asked 'Does the cloud contain poison gas?' There was very little we could do in case it was a poison cloud. By now, most tied a shirt around their face to protect them from whatever particles the cloud bore. It was the first eruption of Mt. Pinatubo after being dormant for hundreds of years. And this was just one of many eruptions that led to the climactic eruption. In the following days, the mountain erupted continuously. During the night, the only way we would know that the volcano was erupting was when all communication equipment, our television set and radio sets would go blank and hiss at the same time. We would run out from under the shed and as our eyes adjusted to the night sky, we would be able to make out the eruption column. At times, the eruption column would be filled by lightning of varying colors. On the night of June 14, I met with the entire ABS-CBN News team and we decided that we should prepare for a major eruption and our evacuation. Teams were assigned to vehicles and equipment to carry out when the time comes. There were sleeping bags and cots, cooking equipment and communications equipment, food supplies and fuel.

The following day, June 15, a massive dark grey cloud billowed from the mountain and spread in all directions. It was unlike the eruption clouds of the past days. This was massive, blotting out all the surrounding mountains and rising to an unbelievable height. In just an hour or so, the cloud blocked out the sun and sky and plunged Zambales into darkness. News teams, the Phivolcs team and the military contingent started to pack up that day as our communications were rendered useless. Our news teams packed into four pick-ups and headed in the direction of Botolan. A few kilometers down the road, I decided we could stay at an abandoned schoolhouse where we could cook lunch and assess our situation. We parked at the schoolhouse, covering our windshields with plywood boards to protect them from the falling rocks. The rocks were the size of pebbles to small golf balls. We started unpacking the communication and cooking equipment. Our communications engineer and I set up our radio antenna at the back of the schoolhouse while other members of the team started preparing lunch while others took the chance to take a bath at the artesian well also located behind the school. It must have been the high metal content of the material in the eruption cloud that enabled us to establish communications with the newsroom. Team members took turns reporting live for Channel 2 and DZMM, the network's AM radio station. It was quiet in that classroom when team members held hands in prayer before our meal. It was at this time I realized that there was only so much we could report and that the danger to us exceeded what we could accomplish.

It was at this time I realized we were up against a danger we could not see, something that could come out of the dark and sweep over us. It was the first time I felt fear. After our lunch, we packed up again and headed for the town proper of Botolan. As Pinatubo was continuously erupting that day, typhoon Yunya was blowing across the island of Luzon, spreading the ash and debris all over the island and causing 'Lahar' flows in the valleys around the volcano. It was a harrowing drive to Botolan. The rain from the typhoon turned the ash and volcanic material in the air into mud. It was literally raining mud. The wipers on our pick-ups stopped working as the mud built up on the windshield. Every few kilometers, we would stop and pour bottled water over the windshields to clean them up. It got to a point that this was useless as well. The mud and stones raining down on us was relentless. To be able to drive one of the pick-ups, I had to stick my head out of the driver's window as the windshield was completely blocked by mud. I wrapped my head and arm in t-shirts to protect me from the falling debris and I had to wear sunglasses to shield my eyes. We drove for what seemed like hours through a featureless grey landscape, in total darkness.

As we drove through mud puddles in the middle of nowhere, we were met by the most surreal sight. There was a light down the road. They were lights from two jeepneys parked in the middle of the road. On the road behind the jeepneys, a woman lay with her face to the ground in the form of a crucifix. Some of the people were standing around her in prayer and a statue of the Blessed Virgin was inside one of the jeeps. We stopped to speak with them and take footage of the scene. The lady I spoke with told me that they had traveled from the province of Rizal to offer prayers to the Virgin at the foot of the mountain. I knew that they knew what was happening and of the danger they were in but told them that they had to leave soon. Thirty minutes later, we were on our way.

It took us almost two hours to make our way to the Botolan municipal hall. We unpacked our equipment again and prepared to spend the night in the safety of the building. It was not difficult getting a signal through to Manila. We filed reports all night, describing what we were experiencing and what we had gone through to get to this point. People were walking out on the streets and converging around the municipal hall. Some had ponchos on, some had army helmets, all had umbrellas as protection from the falling sand. People asked us what was going on and all we could tell them was that this was part of the volcano's eruption phase. Others asked how long this was going to last and whether help was on its way. It was another sleepless night.

We took turns going out into the darkness to see what was going on in the town, the surrounding areas and along the national highway. On one of the trips I took, we went along the highway. The rain had stopped but the ash fell like snow all through the night. Traveling along the highway was eerie. Through the darkness we could see ash covered trees, houses, roads and in the distance we could see flashes in the direction of the mountain. Traveling along the highway, we could make out the mountain range on our left to the east. I kept thinking it a pyroclastic cloud could come from over the hills toward the sea. Back at the municipal hall, we kept vigil all night. It was a night of uncertainty. No one knew when it would stop and when the air would clear. The constant earthquakes told us the mountain was not done.

We went out the following morning into a monochromatic landscape. The sky was still grey but the the darkness was gone. Gone too was our signal to Manila, which may have been possible only because the minerals ejected by the mountain helped carry the signal further than usual. The buildings, houses, vehicles, trees, roads, everything was grey from ash and sand. We went down to scrape the sand and mud off our vehicles. There was a 6 inch layer of sand on all our vehicles. All our teams went in four directions to gather footage and talk to the people. It was a surreal grey landscape. The cement like combination of mud and sand proved to be too heavy for some structures. Roofs of houses, buildings and warehouses collapsed. Trees bowed to the weight and crops were devastated. All along the national highway, people walked aimlessly, clutching bundles, children in tow. Families and their possessions were on carabao drawn carts. Every now and then, our vehicles would get stuck in the mud and while some of the teasm tried to free the vehicle, some wold go around to talk to the people. Most of them asked if help was on the way.

Zambales was cut off because of the collapse of several bridges along the national highway. Our team had to take the long way round through the province of Pangasinan and down through Tarlac and Pampanga. All roads up until Pampanga were featureless and grey, buried in sand and ash. Even the North Luzon Tollway was indistinguishable from the surround fields. Only the electric posts along the sides of the road told us that were still on course.

The eruption of Mt. Pinatubo was one of the largest eruptions of the 20th century, ten times larger than the Mt. St. Helens eruption. Some say it was second only to the Mt. Novarupta eruption in Alaska in 1912.

The numbers are staggering. At the height of the June 15 eruption, the ash column rose to 40 kilometers, a height of 131,200 feet, covering an area of 125,000 square kilometers and ejecting 10 cubic kilometers of material cooling the earth by as much as 1.5 degrees centigrade and coloring sunsets for years after.

More than 350 people died during the eruption, mostly from collapsing roofs. The early warning from Phivolcs and the USGS saved thousands of lives. 200,000 people lost their homes. Damage to infrastructure, homes, livestock and crops went into the billions of pesos.

Eternal Sunshine of The Spotless Coast

eternal sunshine of the spotless coast
Originally uploaded by JingMag

the colors of night

the colors of night
Originally uploaded by JingMag

Sails

Sails
Originally uploaded by JingMag