SIDE TRIP 43: Chained
I thought the roads in Samar were bad. Really bad. All potholes, no pavement. Aaaargh! The incumbent Congressman’s wife took a beating in the last elections because of them. (GMA then promptly installed him as BID Commissioner. What the f__k?!)
An American visitor once commented “I don’t see roads like these anymore, not even in Africa!” Of course I bristled at being compared to some God-forsaken little African nation ravaged by civil wars and where people die of hunger every day. Is the Philippines really worse off?
And then I took the San Jose to Roxas road on Mindoro island and discovered just what “bad road” really really meant. I was going to catch the RORO to Caticlan in Roxas and that entailed going over the mountains separating Occidental from Oriental Mindoro. And what an experience it was!
The road – if one can call it that – was fit only for carabaos: muddy, slippery, with deeply rutted tire tracks, leaving little room to maneuver. Forget about using your pretty little car; it won’t get past the first ten meters on that hellish stretch from Banban to Milagrosa. The jeepney was literally swimming on mud! I thought we were not going to make it.
But of course, Pinoy ingenuity will always prevail. The two rear tires of the jeepney were fitted with iron chains for more traction, and its front fender was equipped with “wings” -- a kind of pulley where one end of the cable is tied to a tree so it can pull the jeepney up. Wonderful.
Umm.. did I mention the Vice President of the Philippines comes from Mindoro? He obviously doesn’t take that road.
The "Wings" on the front fender:
An American visitor once commented “I don’t see roads like these anymore, not even in Africa!” Of course I bristled at being compared to some God-forsaken little African nation ravaged by civil wars and where people die of hunger every day. Is the Philippines really worse off?
And then I took the San Jose to Roxas road on Mindoro island and discovered just what “bad road” really really meant. I was going to catch the RORO to Caticlan in Roxas and that entailed going over the mountains separating Occidental from Oriental Mindoro. And what an experience it was!
The road – if one can call it that – was fit only for carabaos: muddy, slippery, with deeply rutted tire tracks, leaving little room to maneuver. Forget about using your pretty little car; it won’t get past the first ten meters on that hellish stretch from Banban to Milagrosa. The jeepney was literally swimming on mud! I thought we were not going to make it.
But of course, Pinoy ingenuity will always prevail. The two rear tires of the jeepney were fitted with iron chains for more traction, and its front fender was equipped with “wings” -- a kind of pulley where one end of the cable is tied to a tree so it can pull the jeepney up. Wonderful.Umm.. did I mention the Vice President of the Philippines comes from Mindoro? He obviously doesn’t take that road.
The "Wings" on the front fender:
posted by Miki at
5:05 PM
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