Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) Secretary-General Renato Reyes failed to cross path with Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo. However, he has still a message to the latter who performed the commute challenged from Marikina to Malacanang.
On his social media posts, Reyes waited at Santolan for the arrival of Panelo, who’s expected to use LRT-2, however, the presidential spokesperson chose to ride a jeepney instead.
When he realized that Panelo was not going to use LRT-2 service, Reyes decided to ride a bus to LRT-2 Cubao station.
“6:AM October 11, 2019. Sec Panelo, ito yung daily commute na pipila from Santolan bago makasakay ng bus. Tapos naisra pa aircon ng bus, jusme! Bababa kami sa LRT2 Cubao. Tapos pipila uli para makasakay papuntang Recto. Ito yung totoong kumplikadong pag-commute, hindi yung one-time na pagsakay ng jeep. Mass transport crisis nga eh,” Reyes said in his post.
After Panelo arrived at Malacanang after four hours of travel, Reyes congratulated Panelo for completing the challenge, saying that he’s already late if they’re going to follow the government time.
He pointed out that there’s a mass transport crisis because Panelo required to ride four different jeepneys to arrive at his destination.
“Congratulations Sec. Panelo for arriving in one piece in Malacanang after nearly 4 hours of commute! Medyo late na kayo kung government time yan. Just the same, we hope this experience underscored the fact that there IS a mass transport crisis and that long term solutions are needed,” Reyes said.
“I don’t think you’d be doing the same commute for the rest of the month, so let’s just call a spade a spade. We have a serious mass transport crisis which we can no longer downplay or ignore. Kailangan po ng matagalang solusyon. Naka 4 na palit kayo ng jeep papunta ng Malacanang, di ba? Yun po ang sinasabi namin mass transport crisis, ang kakulangan ng maaasahan at episyenteng mass transport system,”
Meanwhile, Panelo still insisted that there’s no “mass transport crisis” happening in the Philippines, saying that Filipinos can be creative to face the traffic in Metro Manila.