By Jan Vicente B. Pekas
With the holiday season in full swing, the traffic in the city only reaches its boiling point. As I commuted from home in Tuba to Baguio, it was truly not an enjoyable experience. Taxis are almost non-existent given the sheer amount of people littered beside the streets, just suffering under the sun. The palengke seems as if it is filled with ants. Everyone is carrying big bags and everyone is sweating from the amount of walking. And again, the line for taxi was long, but I have yet seen a taxi without a passenger, every modes of public transportation is full. Commuting from Tuba to Baguio has always had its perks, that even if the jeepneys were full you could count on the busses to pick you up. Only this time, that was not the case.
I can only assume that which motivates each and every single struggling person out there moving and fighting against traffic, congestion, heat, and suffering is that Christmas dinner. Given all that we had gone through this year, everyone is deserving of at least one more happy memory.
But even in the midst of the jolly season, you can find the masses standing under the sun waiting for public transpo for hours, even visitors of Baguio without their own private vehicles stand with others crumpled within busses, and finally the spending from every family will reach its apex. Everyone except the rich will lose money this month. In the month where everyone is supposed to be jolly, struggle is still seen everywhere.
From the ways in how each family celebrates, the inequalities can still be seen. How much each family struggles to prepare Christmas dinner and how others just breeze through it. Not everyone will celebrate the holiday seasons equally. Some will eat absurdly expensive dishes while convincing the masses they can have an enjoyable Christmas dinner with just 500 pesos. While others will run around the palengke, wait in long lines for jeepneys, and finally wake up early to cook for entire families. A lot of people will be tired before and after Christmas, unable to truly enjoy the special occasion.
In what was supposed to be a jolly season, I can’t help but focus on the obvious signs of struggle and inequality. My own outlook of Christmas has severely changed across the years. Now, it is clear people must dance around the line of debt just to provide an enjoyable meal.
In this holiday season and the coming ones, there will always be a sore spot as long as the many continue to struggle while the few exploit them.
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