
(MindaNews/19 January) — Last Monday, the Iglesia ni Cristo made history. It gathered 370,000 people (according to the police) in their rally in Davao City.
The record set was not for the sheer magnitude of participants, but the record is that the rally turned out to be just a gathering of its members to watch the broadcast on a giant screen of their national rally in Manila’s Quirino Grandstand.
Murag gihimong dakong sala ang tibuok downtown, from San Pedro to Bolton to Anda, aron lang motan-aw og salida.
To the INC leaders, ngano wala na lang ninyo gi-Zoom ang inyong rally?
The rally was for peace, but it was ‘peace-te’ for commuters that day who got stranded due to the road closure and traffic rerouting.
Another record INC made especially in Davao was that nearly a million of its residents decided not to commute that day to avoid traffic Hell.
God made Sunday a rest day, INC added Monday to that list.
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That INC rally was meant to wish for peace and unity for those two people who raised Hell in Filipinos’ lives.
High prices of bigas and sibuyas, confidential funds, jeepney phaseout, zero budget for PhilHealth, parties and trips abroad during crisis are the things these ex-Uniteam brought to us.
Dear INC, why not pray to save us from Kasamaan x Kadiliman? Are your eyes open?
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Dear INC: If you think peace can be achieved if BBM and Sara just get along and forget the impeachment, remember, we all moved on from the breakups of Kath-Niel, Carla and Tom, Rico and Maris, Gerald and Bea, Gerald (again!) and Kim Chiu, Cesar and Sunshine, Sharon and Gabby!
Celebrity couples believe that splitting up saved their sanity and careers.
So, dear INC, learn from history, move on na please. It gives us peace of mind that they are now split and getting at each others’ throads, and pockets. May kasamaan and kadiliman finish each other.
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VP Sara said the INC rally was a “powerful display of faith and unity” to save her from impeachment.
This coming from a VP who displayed powerful rants of impunity and who wanted to chop BBM’s head.
The rest of the country is praying, go ahead, finish na yan.
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But what made Dabawenyos united this past week was the issue of traffic.
Dabawenyos agree that traffic is getting worse. They also disagree on a study that said commuting in Davao City traffic was worse than Manila’s traffic. Unsa ba gyud.
Remember, the new Davao City motto is: “Davao: Traffic is Here.”
It takes two hours to travel from Sasa to downtown, or Toril to downtown to get to the office or for work. That means it takes two hours to travel around 8 to 15 kilometers.
TomTom Index, the subject of Dabawenyos’ criticism, says the average time for Dabawenyos to commute for 10 kilometers is 32 minutes and 59 seconds. That makes Davao City the eighth slowest city in terms of traffic.
Davao wants to showcase they are the best, having world-standard in so-and-so. But this is not what they expected.
A turtle takes five hours to crawl through 1.5 kilometers.
If you want to reason out that at least we’re not that slow as turtles, we’re not turtles indeed, we’re humans. We move fast, we work fast, we can compose a Facebook post in two minutes and respond to a comment in less than a minute, we rush to the first day of mall sale or opening of a fast food restaurant.
But Dabawenyos, especially DDS, said the study is another one of those things meant to discredit the Dutertes. Basta taga Dabaw, hawod kaayo og analysis.
So, is traffic for real?
Speed limit, lack of jeepneys, too many private vehicles, road repairs, lack of traffic management, are factors that exacerbate the problem. Who can solve that for us? Not the INC. Not even the Dutertes who seem to be absent from attending to day-to-day problems. Thus, the Davao City motto has an extension: “Davao: Life is Here, But the Mayor is Nowhere.”
We will not say much anymore about this traffic mess. As we said earlier, sa Dabaw, daghang feeling hawod.
(Mind Da Noise is a column by jaded Mindanawon observers).