How I survived the Friday gridlock

AS early as 11 a.m., traffic began to pile up from the North Reclamation Area (NRA) all the way to the South Road Properties (SRP).

This correspondent was forced to hitch a ride on an Isuzu Elf passenger jeepney boarded by members of the Iglesia ni Cristo from Liloan town, who were attending the 99th anniversary celebration of the INC at the SRP.

The jeepney can accommodate 30 people but it was filled above capacity by the time I boarded it. I sat on a wooden plank placed between the main seating area of the jeepney.

At 12:10 p.m., one could hardly breathe inside the SRP tunnel which was clogged with smoke-belching vehicles that moved at turtle pace. It took more than an hour to come out of that ordeal.

On arriving at the site, I saw lots of people who, instead of going inside the venue, walked over the platform in the viaduct and into the grassy area leading to the sea coast.

Lots of people inside the venue walked in barefoot due to muddy ground.

I decided to leave the site after enduring several minutes of pushing from people eager to enter the venue for the celebration.

Fortunately I managed to catch a cab which managed to leave the SRP without so much traffic.