By Atty. Antonio P. Pekas
Recently, I had to go down to Los Banos twice in as many weeks. Haven’t done any long traveling the past years, since the hard covid-19 lockdowns. Or for more than two years.
But then I had to go. Since we had been marooned in Baguio and its suburbs, I wasn’t surprised that my body did not take well to the almost 24 hours of being in a bus. Same thing with the very cold air-conditioning. And also sleep being limited to catnaps.
Every time I was getting some deep sleep, it was time for a stop-over, or to get down and hightail it to another bus station bound for the next destination.
And so it happened. When I boarded the first class bus for Cubao, Quezon City, it was half-empty. What happened? I thought everybody was itching to travel for business or for some better job somewhere?
But after about seven hours when I got into the bus for the Southern Tagalog area, to Sta. Cruz, Laguna that passes through Calamba and Los Banos, of the same province, my perspective changed. The bus was full. About one hour after, when it stopped at the town of our beloved National Hero, right at the end of the South Express Way, almost half of the passengers got down. Not all of them were bound though for that town. Some would take other transport for destinations in nearby Batangas which abuts Laguna.
After about 10 hours on my way back to go home to Baguio, I noticed the same thing. The bus was half-full in Los Banos and when we got to Calamba, all seats were taken.
And then after about four hours, I boarded a Victory Liner bus in Quezon City. There were just 12 of us in the bus when it left for our good old Summer Capital.
Same thing happened when I went back to the same destination a week after. Few passengers going down from Baguio and going back from Metro Manila.
On the other hand, the buses going to and from the Southern Tagalog areas were full.
People in the Southern Tagalog areas are really on the move. Either for business purposes or for better job opportunities, etc.
Why are they moving more than us northerners? One reason is their proximity to Metro Manila, the business center of the whole country. Another is, they have more money. Just a look at their surroundings and the reason is obvious.
Their lands are fertile courtesy of Mt. Makiling which had been spewing fertile volcanic materials to the surrounding provinces since God knows when. It is now a dead volcano but the resulting landscape is awash with fertility and life.
I was witness to the commercial value of land in Laguna for instance. In a remote town there where we held a seminar in 1980, a hectare with three layers of commercially valuable plants was going for P5 million. The highest plants were coconut, coexisting with the shorter trees composed of rambutan, lanzones, citrus or coffee. Below the trees at ground level were pineapples, camote or cassava. Money was practically growing on the trees or oozing from them and the other plants.
Easily that land could cost P15M to P20M now.
The point is, the southerners are economically blessed with agricultural wealth. And they parlayed such to industries and other commercial ventures. Add to that their proximity to the country’s commercial capital and we could only salivate about their good fortune.
In short, they have more money than us northerners so they can take better advantage of the easing out of restrictions or the opening up of the economy.
We have no choice but to compete with whatever we have.**
