As I was leaving our house at around 8 am today, I saw a lot of people standing on sidewalks and loading/unloading areas waiting for public utility jeepneys to pass by. Not one did. “It’s one of those days, eh?”, I thought. I joined the crowd and for several minutes, literally no PUJ was in sight.
I found out from a trisikad driver that the streets were deprived of public transport because a Panay Electric Company (PECO) electrical post in Brgy. San Jose, Villa fell down due to a van hitting it the previous night. This tragedy caused a domino effect on the traffic. Jeeps that were at the scene of the incident moved at a snail’s pace while traversing their respective routes. The jeeps in Mohon terminal waiting for car passes couldn’t get them because the car passes are in the possession of the jeeps that were already stuck in the city. Boom! Double headace for commuters who most likely expected a good start to the week: there were already very few jeepneys passing by, and when they did pass, the jeeps couldn’t leave the terminal anyway.
I was able to ride an Oton Anhawan jeepney but the driver just took us to Mohon terminal because he was probably too much of a wuss to brave the traffic again.
So there, at the terminal, literally hundreds of people — students, office employees, Central Market vendors, people with transactions in the city, you name it — were waiting, in the rain, to catch a jeepney. Most have probably given up hope of arriving to work/school on time. They just wanted to get there.
It was one of the most miserable yet somehow amusing things I’ve ever seen. Miserable because, well, who wouldn’t be miserable, getting wet because of the rain while waiting in vain for a ride to work/school. ON A MONDAY!!! It was amusing because you get to see how people would react in crummy situations like this. Some were pissed, obviously. Some were ignorantly nagging the terminal operators, not knowing the real cause of the whole thing. Most appeared indifferent but I doubt this ordeal didn’t irk them to the very least.
I also found it funny how people reacted when the media arrived. Some were reluctant to give answers to this Aksyon Radyo guy but the terminal operator dude seemed to relish his 15-seconds of radio fame. And when ABS-CBN started putting up their cameras, people simultaneously bowed their heads to cover their faces. Whatever happened to that facet of being a Pinoy where we’re always happy to smile for the cameras?
For my part, there was some irritability, of course. My pants were wet, people were standing REAL close to me (which I despise… I have personal space issues) and I badly needed to pee. Before, I would totally be angry like most people. But not anymore. You just have to have a positive mental attitude. There are things in life that are out of your control. Fretting over them leads to unnecessary stress. Unless you’re Superman (or a PECO employee), there’s not much you can do when electrical posts fall down and block the road. So just let things be. It’s much less stressful than be mad over something that’s already happened and that’s out of your control.
My misery ended an hour later when I used ninja moves to get past people to get in an empty Villa jeep.
That was definitely an interesting start to my day/week. They say experience is the best teacher but I sure wouldn’t want to go through this ever again.
patrickkennan.com 
