Today’s itinerary called for driving three hours south of Manila to a coconut plantation-cum-resort. But again, getting there is half the fun, right? We drove straight through the middle ot town to get to the other side of metro Manila, stop-go traffic all the way. It is unfair to say that Manila has no super-highways, because we picked one up and drove its length for about 45 minutes. It’s still being built — traffic was constantly moved from lane to lane to allow for construction, and I was reminded of driving the then-nascent Interstate system in the early ’60s in the US, when similar construction was omnipresent. I asked, and it turns out that Marcos had planned for construction of this highway, but when Aquino came in, she canceled his projects. “Anything with Marcos’ name on it was bad,” I was told. “If she hadn’t canceled the highway, it would have been constructed a decade ago.” Yes, but the flip side of the coin: Before any road/hospital/airport gets built in this country, the congressmen involved buy up the adjacent land, then when the news gets out that infrastructure is coming, they resell the land to investors and keep the profits. So what Aquino really did in canceling Marcos’ projects, was to cancel the pork-barrel for his friends that would have come with them … life is indeed topsy turvy when seen through the looking glass. And when it comes to political will and public infrastructure, one need look no further than New York’s 2nd Avenue subway to know that these problems are endemic to all nations and can indeed last for generations. Manila’s traffic is certainly horrendous, and those who can afford to do so keep a driver on staff. The driver not only, well, drives, but also parks — or if necessary, drives around the block multiple times while the family has dinner or does shopping or goes to the medical or business appointment. Public transportation runs from jeepneys — buses that started out with engines “borrowed” from WWII surplus jeeps — to tricycles — motorcycles with a sidecar that can hold anything up to and including an extended family to taxis. There is a short and aging el downtown, but I haven’t figured out where it goes or for how far. Everything else is private car. A system has been put in place that is designed to keep each car off the road one day a week. Depending on the last digit of your license plate, you can’t drive on day 1, day 2, and so on throughout the week. Unless you are a congressman or a doctor, in which case your car is exempt. But of course, as in Mexico City, this system only served to create a used car market — people just drive another car with another license number on the forbidden day. The families we have been staying with typically have as many cars as maids — and remember, the daily minimum wage is around $10 per day.
