MANILA, Philippines – Try commuting daily to work, youth group Anakbayan challenged President Rodrigo Duterte on Tuesday, along with other officials of his administration — particularly presidential spokesperson Salvador Panelo, Transportation Secretary Arthur Tugade, and Metropolitan Manila Development Authority spokesperson Celine Pialago.
In a statement, Anakbayan national spokesperson Alex Danday, said: “We challenge Duterte, Panelo, Tugade, and Pialago to commute to work every day for a week to experience the hellish reality of our everyday commute.”
The group cited recent contract signings that would provide the President, along with other senior government a G280 jet made by American company Gulfstream Aerospace Corp. that cost around P2 billion.
“Get off your luxury jet and try commuting for once, will you?” Danday said.
READ: Palace backs purchase of P2-B jet for senior gov’t officials
Earlier, Panelo brushed off claims made by Bagong Alyansang Makabayan Secretary-General Renato Reyes that Metro Manila had been suffering a mass transport crisis. Panelo said there was no crisis because commuters were still able to get to their destinations.
After this, Tugade said that there was no such thing as a crisis, although he admitted that there were issues and problems hounding the Department of Transportation.
On the other hand, Pialago drew flak for belittling the transport strike staged last week by public utility vehicle (PUV) operators and drivers. She said that the strike was not a success.
READ: Palace: No mass transport crisis yet in Metro Manila
READ: Metro Manila now suffering a mass transport crisis — Bayan
READ: MMDA spox says transport groups’ strike ‘unsuccessful’
Previously, Danday had chided Pialago, saying that MMDA’s empathy for the masses seemingly “passed away” — a reference to Pialago’s blunder when she was a Miss Philippines Earth candidate in 2014, saying that a fellow candidate who fainted “passed away” instead of saying “passed out.”
READ: Militant group twits Pialago: MMDA’s empathy to people has ‘passed away’
“Denying the crisis is a disservice to the millions of commuters who travel to hell and back just to provide food on their table,” Danday said. “For the common people, added travel time is the difference between their bonus and a salary deduction, between praise and termination.”
“Just because they do not directly encounter the transport crisis does not mean the crisis does not exist,” she added.
/atm