/ ocroBER 15' 2019
TIESDAY
PAltEr,o TllRI|$ D0tl,il
ByJulie M. Aurelio
@t\qt{eliol\a
Presidential spokesperson Sal-
vador Panelo on Monday
turhed down the dare ofa com-
muters' group, Kongreso ng
Mananakay, for him to take
public transportation for six
months.
"That doesn't matter. I only
gave in to shove it in their faces
that it's not true that we have
not experienced commuting
using public transport," panelo
told reporters at Malacaiang.
He also stressed that gov-
ernment officials did not have
to ride in public utility vehicles
(PUVS) to see the suffering
of
ordinary Filipinos.
"Even if you don't ride one,
you will still see it every day,
when you see queues at jeep-
ney or bus stands. You will see
them struggling to hail a ride,
especially during rush hour.
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There's no need to accept anlz
further challenges," he said.
As for Iligan City Rep. Fred-
erick Siao's proposal to require
government officials to ride in
PIfVJ at least once a week to re-
duce the number of private ve-
hicles on the road, Panelo said
there was no problem if the
goal was to "share sympathy"
with the public.
But if the purpose was to
make them experience the hor-
rors of public transport, it was
notnec,essary, he stressed.
"r
No stranger to riding in pUVs
Panelo maintained that he
was no stranger to riding in pU-
Vs, and that other Cabinet offi-
cials like Transportatibn Secrel
tary Arthur Tugade and Fi-
nance Sacretary Carlos
Dominguez III had atl
experi-
enc€d taking buses and jeep-
neys.
"We all went through that.
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We experienced fighting to ing the traffic problem, but in
ride a jeepney, even the bus,"
Panelo said, quipping that For-
eign Secretary Teodoro Locsin
Jr. was perhaps the onty official
who did not go through a simi:
lar experience.
At the same time, he called
on critics to stop issuing com-
muting challenges and propose
so\rtions " to the traffic and
transport problem instead.
"Like [Vice President] Leni
[Robredo]. Stop with the crit!
cism. She says, 'Admit that
there's a crisis.'I already said
there's a traffic crisis," he said.
Robredo, in her Sunday ra-
dio program, had said the first
step to solving the problemwas
to acknowledge it.
Robredo's reaction
Barry Gutierrez, Robredo's
spokesperson,; responded by
saying that she had long been
giving advice, not just on solv-
other areas as well.
"The question i3, after more
than three years in office, why
is it onllf now that the govern-
ment is looking for solutions to
the traffic problem, which they
had promised would be easily
solved then?" he said in a state-
ment sent to repdrters.
Panelo earlierdrew flak for
saying there was no mass
transport crisis in Metro Mani-
la despite the frequent break-
down of train lines and the
worsening traffic problem, re-
sulting in a longer commute for ',
those taking PUVS.
. Last Friday, after accepting
the commuting challenge is-
.
sued by Bagong Alyansang
Makabayan secretary general
.
Renato Reyes, Panelo took al-
most four hours to get to Mala-
canang from his house l:in
Marikina City, -wrH A REpolr
FROM JLESSET O. ENANO INQ