What crisis?

THE people in Malacañang, the Palace of the People, don’t con­sider it a “transportation crisis” that fewer LRT trains are running and passengers find themselves squeez­ing into buses and jeepneys like sar­dines with legs, or that MRT trains bog down as a matter of habit. Or that jeepney operators can “suc­cessfully” call a nationwide strike to punish riders.

Maybe it’s not a transport crisis; maybe it’s worse.

A crisis of faith.

When policemen raid a mountain of gold and discover tons of drugs, when their superiors promote them for ingeniously making the drugs disappear while a fleet of SUVs ap­pears, when cops are more greedy and evil than drug lords, whom can we trust?

Just when you thought crooked cops could not get any crookeder, another respected uniform ap­pears, tainted. When Star City and the DZRH building caught fire, how could the network’s star broad­caster, Deo Macalma, lose his Rolex watch, a gold bracelet, and P60,000 in cash if his office was spared by the flames? Who crashed into his office, who opened the drawers of his desk? When you doubt the brav­ery and integrity of firemen who are conventionally portrayed as heroes, whom can you trust?

When billions of Health-y pesos are lost to insurance fraud, enough to make you sick at heart, can you afford to continue to trust the sys­tem? When the whistleblowers are arrested, does the news restore your faith in justice?

When a healthy, handsome young man is mauled and beaten to death by “upperclass” cadets while “re­sponsible” officials, including doc­tors, do nothing, can we trust the Philippine Military Academy to edu­cate and groom our sons for their future as defenders of their coun­try?

Our teachers are skeptical about how much their promised pay hikes will amount to and when it will hap­pen. Can we blame them? Teacher, we trust you to keep the faith.

Since the dengvaxia controversy turned into a class tragedy, how many mothers have lost their faith in vaccines?

No wonder the young-at-heart are holding their breath wishing Christ­mas were here already, and only the traffic is keeping it from arriving sooner. At least they have faith in the magic of the season.