Presidential spokesman Salvador Panelo made true his promise to commute alone from his residence in Marikina to Malacañang Friday morning following his claim that there is no mass transport crisis in Metro Manila.
Panelo said he left his house at 5:15 a.m. and was spotted by netizens waiting for a jeepney. The Palace official also sent reporters a photo of him with Friday’s paper to prove that he was not faking his commute.
However, media caught up with him in Cubao and followed him from there.
Panelo made three jeepney rides before riding a motorcycle to take him to Malacañang’s New Executive Building. He arrived at the Palace at around 8:50 a.m.
According to Panelo, he specifically took a different route to see the areas in Metro Manila where there were reports of heavy traffic congestion.
“I took a different route. I purposely did some jeepney rides especially where traffic problem is horrendous,” Panelo said in an interview.
However, he said he was slowed down by the members media who caught up with him in Cubao and in Gilmore.
“But I think my journey has been disrupted because somehow the media finally caught up with me in this jeepney and they’re all over me,” he said.
“I don’t want media coverage. In fact, I declined all media coverage. In fact, they were able to disappear during the first two hours but somehow they managed to catch me,” he added.
The Palace official said he intended to also ride the LRT Friday morning but did not want the media to follow him.
“My purpose really was to ride the LRT but when these media people suddenly came — I don’t want to be covered but they’re all here — so I decided not to take the LRT anymore. Maybe tomorrow without them,” he said.
According to Panelo, it usually takes him about 40 minutes or up to 90 minutes during rush hour, from his residence in Marikina to Malacañang when he rides his car.
However, Panelo said the traffic situation even worsened but maintained his position that there was no transport crisis in Metro Manila.
He also blamed Congress for not granting President Duterte emergency powers to solve the issue when he was asking for it.
“Well it’s the same. We’ve been like this many years ago. It has even worsened. But, you know when I said there was no crisis, I was referring to paralysis. There is no paralysis in the transport, we can still get rides,” he said.
“Three years ago when the President assumed office, he wanted, and he asked Congress to give him emergency powers so he can use them to solve. But the problem is the Congress opted not to give him the emergency powers. It is only now they want to give him that power but the President said, ‘I will not accept that because I have such a short time to do what I wanted to do and you might be blaming me for accepting the emergency powers and not solving the problem,'” he said.
Panelo also called out militant groups that kept on making demands about his commute. He said that he only accepted the challenge to show that government officials can take public transport to work.
“You know the problem with these people is they are nitpicking. You don’t have to ride a jeepney or the LRT to know the situation. We know that. Common sense will tell you that everyone suffers from the horrible traffic situation. That’s a given,” he said.
“The only reason why I accepted that was to show to them that we in the government can do what they thought we could not do,” he added.
Panelo, meanwhile, expressed belief that transport officials are doing the best they can to resolve Metro Manila’s traffic problem.
“The transport officials know the problem. They’re doing something about it. We don’t have to tell them what they have to do,” he said. (Argyll Geducos)
