By Jan Vicente B. Pekas
Lines along jeepney stations have always been a staple in Baguio City. Come late noon and early evening, the snake-like “pila” for jeepneys cover sidewalks. However, the long lines in these recent weeks are seemingly formed way earlier than before. Across social media, posts can be seen of what ordinary Filipinos go through after a day’s work. Even when the afternoon sun shines bright, the long lines of people can already be seen.
In a profession that already required too much work for what little they earn, they are forced to bend their backs further to earn fewer revenue than before. Now, less and less jeepneys are reported to actually work their routes and protest in the streets instead. Leaving exhausted students and employees to get exhausted even further by standing for so long.
Like a wet towel that is squeezed to its limits just to get more of its water, the common peoples are being stretched beyond their capabilities. They are the ones in the frontline, the first ones to face the consequences when people at the top play around and commit irreversible mistakes. When a country is tested with a crisis, it means that the common people are tested, the ordinary workers, and those with not enough money to buy a second chance.
I know that among the jeepney drivers that work our routes, gardening would be an alternative for them. In a time where money is scarce, food becomes gold. For those without land, without cash, and without the able body, however, that is simply not the case. There is no choice left for so many “tsupers”.
For so long a time, the people of this nation have been shamed and deprived. The ayuda of 5k is all but enough for the drivers. Interviews of tearful pleading flood social media. Despite all this, the situation has not been the least of forgiving.
Just like in the pandemic, it was the common folk that were hit the hardest. Forced to survive by all means necessary, to live under strict rules. But politicians were found to have bypassed those same rules and never did get the punishment a common man would get were he the one who violated it.
When things get tough, it only gets a bit annoying to the powerful, they simply brush it off, but for the rest, life becomes unlivable.
The people above are out of touch, both in the situations of their citizens and hardships brought about by crisis.
Even if the pleading and cries of the common folk cannot reach those above, we must empathize with them still. Side with them and even fight with them. Because the out of touch leaders are incapable of empathy and action. **
