GMA News’ Raffy Tima walks from Cubao to Makati with workers

GMA News reporter Raffy Tima on Tuesday got the feel of what some ordinary folk are experiencing due to the lack of transportation when he joined employees in walking to their workplace.

According to his report on “24 Oras,” Tima spent nearly two hours walking from Cubao, Quezon City to Guadalupe, Makati along with some workers he met along the way just a day after he biked from Cainta, Rizal to Pasig City with a sales assistant. 

Tima noted that biking and walking along main thoroughfares due to the lack of public transport amid the community quarantine has seemingly become part of Metro Manila's “new normal.”

After walking one kilometer in Cubao, Tima met building painter Mark Decena and construction worker Ronnie Padillo, who had only met each other shortly before they encountered the reporter.

Decena, a resident of San Jose Del Monte in Bulacan, works in Mandaluyong while Padillo, a Novaliches resident, works in Pasay.

They had been traversing the roads as early as 7 a.m. just to get to work.

Along Crame, Tima, Decena, and Padillo met another group of people who were walking from Caloocan to Mandaluyong.

“‘Pag nakapahinga na ako, hahanap po ulit ako ng panibagong trabaho,” said Eduardo Bastido, a construction worker who recently quit his job because of an abusive boss.

“So para sa isang taong tulad mo, hindi dahilan na mahirap, walang transportasyon, walang masakyan? Hindi ‘yun dahilan [tumigil sa trabaho]?” Tima asked.

“Ay hindi ho,” Bastido replied. “Sa katuwiran natin ngayon sa ganyan e wala ho talagang mangyayari rin e.”

Tima said the workers he met hoped for wider sidewalks, walkways with shade, and ample lighting at night so that their long journeys to and from work would be more bearable.

Senate Committee on Public Services chairman Grace Poe earlier urged the Department of Transportation to fund biking and walking lanes to make Metro Manila cities “more bikeable and walkable, and thus more liveable.” —Julia Mari Ornedo/LDF, GMA News