mongster's nest

- disturbing fantasies, traumatic verses, definitely mongrel thoughts

National roads

Thank you Erwin for this Inquirer article: RP’s eyes and ears in the Global Voices blog network.

Thank you Jhay of La Salle-Dasma for writing about our partylist convention. Thank you Dabet of Bulatlat and Angel of Pinoyweekly for featuring our group in your websites.

Check out the Global Voices Delhi Summit online map.

EDSA (formerly known as Highway 54) remains the most popular and maybe the most important street in the Philippines. It is not only the site of two or three (pick your number) people power uprisings; it hosts the country’s major cultural, social, political, religious and educational landmarks.

Diosdado Macapagal Boulevard is the most expensive road in the world. Mendiola, Recto and Morayta are traditional sites of mass demonstrations. Colon in Cebu is the oldest street in the country. C-5 is gaining prominence as businesses and shopping malls continue to thrive in its vicinity. It is also notorious for the continuing violent demolition of urban poor settlements in the area.

Cory lives in Times street, Erap in Polk street and the President of the Philippines in Arlegui. Escolta, Buendia and Ayala have been associated with big business. Rizal Avenue in Sta. Cruz used to be the ‘Gateway Cubao’ or ‘gimik area’ of the older generation before the LRT ruined its environs. Everything you need to buy can be found in Raon.

Roxas Boulevard (or Dewey Boulevard for the veterans) is the entry point to Baclaran church, DFA, Cultural Center, Central bank, US Embassy, Hyatt Hotel, Mall of Asia, Manila Bay reclamation project, Navy headquarters, Baywalk, Manila Yacht Club, Manila Hotel, South Harbor and Rizal Park.

Coastal Road links Manila to Cavite and Tagaytay. McArthur highway is the poor man’s alternative in travelling to the North. Naguillan, Marcos and Kennon roads lead to Baguio city – the former ukay-ukay capital of the Philippines before SM bankrupted small merchants.

According to Alfredo Navarro Salanga, the North and South expressway can expand the boundaries of Metropolis in the same way Quezon Avenue, Aurora Boulevard and EDSA blurred the distance between the center and suburbs of old Manila during the 1950s-early 70s.

Politicians maximize road projects to promote their interests. During the 2004 elections, street sweepers wearing blue t-shirts with imprinted GMA name (courtesy of road users’ tax) were visible throughout the country’s roads. Local officials were impressed with this strategy that they implemented a similar program in their districts.

Inter-island travel was encouraged through the ‘roll-on roll-off’ (RoRo) nautical highway project. The DENR planted trees in major roads through the Green Philippines Highways project. The MMDA intends to maintain and improve seven major good roads.

The most symbolic road in the country is Commonwealth Avenue in Quezon City. Symbolic since it clearly represents the contradictions in Philippine society.

Mayor Sonny Belmonte has great plans for Commonwealth Avenue. According to him, it’s bigger (road widening never ceases) and longer than EDSA.

Schools are accessible: UP, Ateneo, Miriam, FEU-FERN.

Notable Church structures like Iglesia ni Cristo’s central tower and Roman Catholic’s St. Peter’s Parish are located here.

Government offices abound: Commission on Human Rights, Philippine Nuclear Research Institute, COA, Sandiganbayan, DSWD and the House of Representatives. There is a plan to build a National Government Center around the Batasan Complex.

Call center companies are starting to set up operations here. UP intends to establish a commercial center near Philcoa.

Shopping malls and super grocery stores exist. Night markets catering to the needs of the urban poor operate in Tandang Sora, Manggahan and Litex.

La Mesa watershed – Metro Manila’s drinking water source is accessible through Commonwealt Avenue. Arboretum in Philcoa is the only ‘rainforest’ in the urban jungle. Payatas dumpsite is also in the neigborhood.

Upper class subdivisions flourish in the area: Capitol hills, Ayala Heights, La Vista, Tierra Pura, Filinvest, Don Antonio, BF Homes.

Urban poor kingdoms proliferate in the long stretch of Commonwealth Avenue.

Commonwealth is known as a ‘killer highway’. Robberies are common, traffic mishaps are daily occurrences, and desperate individuals are jumping off from the footbridges.

Rush hour traffic is terrible since there is no alternate route to Commonwealth Avenue. Tricycles dominate the roads around Commonwealth.

Commonwealth is a testament to the Philippine-style of urban planning. Rich subdivisions exist side by side with urban poor ghettoes. The green fields of Diliman and La Mesa dam are just a few kilometers away from the Payatas dumpsite. Laws to uplift the conditions of the poor are crafted in the Batasan which is surrounded by urban poor colonies. Education centers exist yet illiteracy is a major problem in the area. Religious institutions could not stop the moral decay around them.

Commonwealth is traversed by very important people and at the same time by very impoverished people. Wealth is concentrated in just a few households while poverty is dispersed.

This uneven distribution of God’s blessings is not viewed as an aberration. Human flooding is blamed for the pollution, ugliness, traffic and chaos in Commonwealth.

Commonwealth symbolizes the impotence of the State in meeting the needs of the people. Commonwealth attests to the failure of modernization projects. Commonwealth underscores the need for a new kind of democracy.

Commonwealth can be the launching pad for the urban uprising in the future. Commonwealth is the home of the ‘refugees’ from the countryside and the urban proletariat. Imagine, just imagine, if the poor will go out in the streets, in the long stretch of Commonwealth Avenue and what if they started clamoring for change, real change. If that happens, we can forget EDSA and Mendiola.

Related entries:

Towers of desolation
Mirror on the wall.
Open the gates

posted by: mongpalatino at January 23, 2007 10:06 | link | comments (3) |
places

Comments:

#1  23 January 2007 - 16:55

 

actually, there used to be alternate roads to Commonwealth - one located somewhere at the side of "luzon" and the other is "zuzuaregui" street. well, the latter used to be a shortcut before but the terrible congestion at the Katipunan Road defeats its purpose. it was like this - average travel to UP is 15 minutes but we got stuck at the Katipunan Road for almost an hour!

Anonymous

#2  28 January 2007 - 09:19

 

Mong,
I really enjoyed this piece, until the end:" Commonwealth can be the launching pad for the urban uprising in the future. Commonwealth is the home of the ‘refugees’ from the countryside and the urban proletariat. Imagine, just imagine, if the poor will go out in the streets, in the long stretch of Commonwealth Avenue and what if they started clamoring for change, real change. If that happens, we can forget EDSA and Mendiola. "

But the street we really want all over the Archipelago is Ayala Avenue, just like the best streets in Shanghai, Moscow, Paris and New York.

But that requires old-fashioned democracy and capitalism where the proletariat and peasantry have become bourgeois entrepreneurs.

It's the way the 20th century proved works. The Other Way led to perdition. Being 27 is no excuse to ignore the historic lesson.

Anonymous

#3  10 February 2007 - 20:32

 

For senator: Noynoy Aquino, Peter Cayetano, Chiz Escudero, Ping Lacson, Loren Legarda,Joker Arroyo, Manny Villar, Sonia Rocco, Koko Pimentel, Pangilinan, Recto & the rest of the opposition senatorial bets

Anonymous

Comments: