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I recently ran into a former student of mine who belonged to a
Public Finance class I used to teach at the Lyceum. This guy used to
openly court a girl who also belonged to the same class, and so when
I saw him I half-jokingly asked what happened to his amorous
pursuits.
“I stopped na po, sir,” he said. “We’re
geographically incompatible. Hindi na po practical.” The guy went
on to explain that his not-to-be (or ex-future) girlfriend lives in
Malabon while he lives in Parañaque, and the commute to and from
their distant houses, which is inevitable in the process of
courtship, is just too expensive for him. “I’m courting somebody
else now, sir. She used to be my second choice, but she only lives
in Caloocan. Mas malapit so siya na lang,” my student added to my
amusement.
I wanted to tell him maybe he didn’t really
like his classmate that much, because if he did, the distance
between their homes would not have mattered. He would have pursued
the girl, to the ends of the earth, so to speak. And eventually, if
they were fated to be together they would share the same home
anyway.
But it was not my place to say so. And maybe
that’s just how it is today when gas prices keep on rising and
everybody is feeling the pinch. So much so that even personal
choices are affected, be it the choice of a ‘geographically
compatible’ girlfriend, or the choice of where to work or what
school to go to.
Oil prices were raised yet again last Saturday,
the 18th time this year. According to the independent think tank
IBON Foundation, oil prices have already increased by 50 percent
over the past year alone. And there seems to be no letting up. I
think about what my student said—his reasons for choosing this
girl instead of that, on account of transport costs—and maybe it
isn’t such silly thinking after all.
In this age of high oil prices, indeed, maybe
the best one is the nearest one. The best school to go to is the
nearest school. The best place to work is the one closes to your
home (if not work at home or from home). And conversely, the best
place to live is the place closest to where you work.
We see a lot condominiums being developed
conveniently near the MRT and LRT routes. These railways are now the
preferred modes of transport for those commuting to their workplaces
and they are servicing more people than ever because gas, diesel,
and even LPG prices are just so high nowadays it’s quite
impractical even for private car owners to be driving to work every
day.
Wages have barely increased and whatever trivial
increases there have been are easily gobbled up by record inflation.
The limited living budgets we have depend on the small choices and
the small changes we make everyday. These turn out big when
computing our expenses at the end of the month. Prices of everything
are going up, so we have to be smart.
There are plenty of examples to follow.
There’s one guy in my office who ditched his car and invested in a
good bicycle, which he now uses to go everywhere for solo trips. We
know of drivers who have modified their driving habits. They take
fewer trips, they take public transport on certain days, they
organize car pooling groups.
The condominium and housing developments that we
see today are being built on the principle that the buyer would be
within close proximity to everything he or she needs. Home is close
to school, church, hospital, workplace, etc. The community is
self-contained.
That is why I’ve been calling on the
government, over the past few weeks in this corner, to make small,
smart choices and changes as well. For instance, I’ve urged the
city governments and the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority
to build a network of bike lanes connecting cities, which cyclists
can use. As I said in previous columns, bike lanes should not just
be painted yellow lines on streets, which motorists can quite easily
disregard. They should be segregated, safe and convenient lanes that
can actually be used by cyclists for commuting.
Also, easing traffic flow would immediately lead
to peso savings for motorists and consumers. Really, how much gas do
we waste just idling away in vehicles that are stuck in traffic
gridlocks every day? Smoother traffic translates to fuel efficiency.
And both the local and national governments could certainly do
something about that.
For starters, they could penalize and/or ditch
those contractors who take the longest time repairing public roads.
As I said in a previous column, these road diggings being done by
the water companies (most of them by Maynilad) and the local
governments or the Department of Public Works and Highways seem to
sprout at a time when traffic would be at its worst, during the
start of classes and the rainy season. And they take the longest
time to complete. Surely, the government can manage road
constructions a lot better than it is doing so now.
As usual, there’s more to be said. But I’ve
run out of space.
ernestboyherrera@yahoo.com
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