But while bus drivers who think they’re in the Indianapolis 500 can be blamed on the MMDA Chairman’s reckless statement, made during the budget hearings in Congress last month, it cannot be denied that there are drivers who have been speeding and swerving on EDSA and other avenues of the city way for a long time now.

I have blogged about why I do not patronize the Jayross Lucky 7 bus lines, which is because of their drivers who do not seem to give a hoot about their passengers safety. There are other buses lately that seem to have acquired the same arrogance that the Jayross bus drivers have. Drivers who seem to think they’re driving Maserati’s instead of King-Long’s.

And as a commuter hanging on for dear life, you really cannot do much except hang on for dear life. Make a comment that the driver can hear and he will tell you that we’re all just trying to make a living, or if you don’t fancy his driving style you can just get off, or some such rejoinder. You can only wish that he will slow down the vehicle long enough at your stop for you to get off shaken but in one piece.

And so after the Sarabia tragedy, MMDA Chairman Bayani Fernando now says there is a Study on Edsa speed limit now underway. Angelito Vergel de Dios, MMDA Traffic Operations Executive Director, says the Organized Bus Route System is well under way.

Must there always be a tragedy before measures are taken to ensure safety? Apparently in this society, the answer is yes.

I knew there was something fishy about those banners …

In other news, Bayani Fernando’s minions strike again, at the Philcoa Wet and Dry Market along Commonwealth Avenue, Quezon City, on Wednesday March 05 2008.

“We’re humans, not animals. Why are they treating us this way?” lamented stall owner Heidi Mañoza, adding that they asked (Bobby Esquivel, head of the MMDA Road Clearing Operations Group) to give them at least three days to build makeshift stalls.

She said they should not be evicted as they were renting the place from UP and they paid for business permits and local taxes.

Mañoza said the demolition affected at least 200 vendors and stall owners.

Mañoza said the MMDA did not have any court order for the demolition.

Read the full article from the Inquirer Online here.

Government property do not remove. Mere possession of this sign is punishable by law. MMDA.

That is the note lining the bottom edge of this enormous tarpaulin sheet that I have seen in at least three places along EDSA. The one above is on an MRT pillar adjacent to the turnoff to the Fort Bonifacio. I have seen another one on an MRT pillar at the intersection of Ortigas Avenue and EDSA, visible if you’re southbound. The third one is at another MRT Pillar in Pasay, just before hitting the Taft Avenue MRT stop.

(Update as of:

• March 4 2008, I spotted two more of these banners back to back on the pink wire Pahayagan ng MMDA at the corner of Roxas Boulevard and EDSA, on the MOA-bound side.
• March 6 2008: Another banner on the tallest MRT post at the Buendia MRT station.
• March 10 2008: Another blogger, Makoyskie, has spotted a banner at IPI Pasig, and has also posted his ideas on the subject.
• March 11 2008: Two more banners, back to back on the tallest posts on the flyover from Tramo to EDSA.
• March 13 2008: An additional banner between the one at Buendia/Edsa and EDSA to the fork going to Fort Bonifacio, making that three banners in quick succession that the motorist sees along that short stretch)
• March 19 2008: Now that I have had the chance to traverse EDSA from end to end I realize that the Bayani Fernando banners have multiplied like mushrooms after a lightning storm. There are even smaller versions of it now (what, they’ve run out of tarp?) which have been hung on the smaller posts in between the big ones.

First time I saw it was on the 25th February, during the rally by the EDSA Shrine. Bayani BF Fernando, Big Brother-like as in George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty Four. At first I thought the gigantic poster of billboard proportions was the idea of an overzealous supporter. But the “Government property” note at the bottom edge clearly states that the money for these self-serving banners came out of taxpayers’ pockets.

The ethics of plastering one’s likeness on public edifices at the expense of public funds seem insignificant compared to the scandals rocking the government today. But this is a man that some groups are pushing to be the next president of the Philippines. The banners themselves are proof that the man is serious about 2010, and serious about using taxpayers money towards furthering his personal goals. If the banners aren’t warning enough, I don’t know what is.

Note that a majority of the MMDA’s pink metal plate signs carry his signature BF initials. This only shows that Bayani Fernando is a typical politician, one that stamps his initials on government funded projects as if the money came from his own pocket. Yes, other politicians do the same thing. So what makes Bayani Fernando any different from the next Congressman Pulpol or Senator Trapo?

His horn-tooters may start leaving comments on this blog (again) and sending unsolicited email to my various email accounts, touting the many virtues of Bayani BF Fernando. Then again, maybe not. I am but an insignificant non-voting spec in the horizon that Bayani BF Fernando is eyeing. So like any insignificant speck I am going to let an authority speak for me.

Take it away, Randy David.

Banner look familiar to you? Click HERE to find out what it reminds you of.

Sam’s brother Rowley was leading a small contingent of rallyists today at EDSA, so I asked Sam if I could go with them today. I was still embarrassed by the thought of being part of the enormous crowd that brought Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo into power seven years ago, and I wanted to make up for that fact by joining what will perhaps bring her back down. It was because he said “Yes” that I have these pictures here today.

It was mid-afternoon when we got to the EDSA Shrine via the MRT. The streets, curiously, were clear. Traffic police had blocked the road that ran beside the shrine, forcing all vehicles to take the overpass on Ortigas. No sea of people here, unlike the one I was part of in 2001. In fact there seemed to be more police than rallyists this afternoon, and even they looked like it was just another day with their arms relaxed over their riot shields, one or two holding a cell phone perhaps texting his wife at home not to worry, there’s nothing to control. It was earlier in the morning where a bit of a fracas occurred, when the police would not let in some people who wanted to attend the mass at the chapel inside the shrine.

Manong Ice Candy and Manang Pusit Vendor were there, in several iterations and variations in fact, because the entrepreneurial Pinoy will seize any opportunity to make an honest buck. Besides, rallyists get hungry too, and the boiled peanuts, deep fried fish and squid balls can quell hunger pangs for ten pesos or less. I don’t think the vendors made a lot of sales today, though. The protesters occupied only one lane of Ortigas Avenue, even if both lanes that intersected EDSA had been closed to traffic. Even the blue-shirted minions of MMDA Chairman Bayani Fernando were nowhere in sight. Only the enormous tarpaulin poster of the chairman himself looked down upon those who sought shelter under the elevated MRT track crossing Ortigas Avenue.

This crowd had earlier played tag with the police who unsuccessfully tried to stop them from proceeding to the EDSA shrine from the north. The rallyists stayed for just under three hours, after which some invisible command made them move en masse northward on EDSA. Text messages Sam received said they were headed for the Ateneo in Quezon City, where a peace concert was being held, but some dispersed after a short pause at the People Power Monument which was a kilometer’s walk away.

After the rallyists faded from view the police moved out into the crowd asking all who were loitering to disperse, the streets were to be opened to traffic again. Actually, westbound traffic on Ortigas Avenue had started flowing even before the main crowd had started its walk out to EDSA. There had been no rebellious speeches by actors or artists, no exhortations to topple the government, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and FG Mike.

There was just not enough people power for that.

Once upon a very long time, I would not have batted an eyelash on that. My son Maui was born at the Mactan Community Hospital where we paid a mere P500 pesos for the obstetrician and nothing for the bed in the ward. His elder brother Athelstan was brought to the hospital after a road mishap in a government ambulance whose drivers left so quietly we did not even have the chance to say thank you. Back then I really felt that our government was taking care of my family as voters of Cebu and citizens of the Philippines. But that was more than 15 years ago.

These days you really need to wonder where your taxes are going. This study made by the PCIJ, based on figures from 2005, tell you where the money made from the sweat of your brow goes.

Looking at these figures I am not surprised at how certain congressmen can walk into an expensive designer store at the Powerplant Mall, and come away with a pair of shoes worth PHP 25,000. These cash disbursements allow them their junkets and their imported vehicles and their dalliances on the side.

The sad thing about it is the taxpayer doesn’t have a say about where his taxes should go. I want my taxes to go to providing clean water and working toilets for the war evacuees in Basilan. But I see no congressmen putting up any effort in that area, not even the congressmen who have been elected by the people of Basilan.

Another beneficiary of 15% of my hard-earned pay is the man I love to hate, Bayani Fernando. My taxes have gone into the U-Turn slots along the main thoroughfares of Metro Manila that appear to cause at least 3 accidents a day.

Things like these really make tax evasion worth thinking about. But then again, only the genuinely rich can get away with that.