The Construct

“Oh! Come and see the violence inherent in the system! Help! Help! I’m being repressed!” -Dennis

Hmm… An anarcho-syndicalist commune? In a republic where the elections might as well be a “farcical aquatic ceremony,” even that sounds good.

At least the martial law’s lifted.

The bad thing about living next to the main road is that noise from traffic never ceases. In an area where the tricycle is king, one rarely gets used to the annoying two-stroke whine. A couple of months into my lease and I somehow did, sleeping soundly despite the noise.

Found out that some other noises are more equal than others. Topping tricycle muffler crap – construction noise. And that’s the reason why I’m up and about writing this piece at two in the morning. Construction work never seems to cease recently.

It’s bad enough that our new neighbor is doing a lot of major renovations to his place that the sound of hammer, drills, and metal grinders drive me insane when the sun’s up. But nights? I just woke up to the noise of power saws from across the street.

Got up to see what’s up. Tile work.

Who the fuck in his right mind would do that at two in the goddamn morning? Wasn’t able to see who exactly’s doing the tile work but if it’s all part of some government project, I’d be damned.

Some people need their beauty sleep, you know. Or at least in my case – sanity sleep.

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One of the things that I would enjoy living in a place where I’m practically near the places I frequent is that I would now rarely see politicians (or their relatives, pañeros, and their posse) on the road. They surely are one of my most hated sights in the metro.

I used to drive on Commonwealth Avenue particularly stretch where the chances of sharing the road with one of the congressmen’s convoy are pretty high. I really hate it when that happens. Hagads with sirens blaring and clearing paths for the Mr. Congressman’s convoy of a minimum of five black hulking SUVs with their hazards lights blinking.

Another peeve is of government vehicles (those with red plates) who act like they’re exempt from all traffic laws. Oh and not to mention the proliferation of vehicles with Number 8 plates. It just makes you wonder how many vehicles do these members of congress really have. And on a representative’s salary?

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Oh come on, Mr. MMDA Chairman. You know what happens on these streets. I’d have to applaud Mayor Binay for pointing this out for everyone. I have seen those anti-Cory posters along Commonwealth and I wondered how they came to be. I rarely get the opportunity to take snapshots of these since I usually drive down Commonwealth alone and distracted driving kills.

According to the report Binay claimed that “MMDA’s inaction bolstered observations that the administration was behind the printing and installation of the posters.” Well, frankly, our brand of politics revolves around propaganda and smear campaigns anyway so this isn’t really something. I do think people have the right to feel “betrayed” by Aquino’s apology.

Now the question remains, how come Fernando doesn’t know about these posters? 1) MMDA quite a number of officer stationed along these thoroughfares and 2) they claim to have installed CCTV cameras that monitor the roads 24/7. Maybe all MMDA officers are just busy looking at car plates for number-coding violations that they forget everything else. Is basic vigilance always left out of MMDA officers’ daily mission orders?

Here’s a possible deal, Mr. Fernando. Leave those anti-Cory posters up but take down your fifteen-foot tall mugshots and repaint all traffic signs back to the internal standard colors. I hate your shade of pink.

I find it quite interesting that our “first-world” counterparts are so obsessed with health and safety regulations even to the point of absurdity (and stupidity, in some arguments). There are just so many things you can’t do in those parts of the world and practically everything needs to have a warning sticker label slapped on them mentioning you can’t eat the plastic or that walking through glass panels can hurt you. You might laugh at “Warning: This product can burn eyes.” slapped on a curling iron. Ever thought of curling your eyelashes? Better use something that’s not too hot.

But take our case for example, where health and safety are two words that have not been and will never be part of Filipino English vocabulary. Even the concepts of health and safety are just too vague concepts for us with which to even bother.

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