So generous with OPM

As the excitement over Olympic medals begins to fade and reason starts to set in, people have started to notice certain things that were quite off during the frenzy of victory.

To begin with, people have noticed how government officials have been throwing millions of pesos at the two-time Olympic gold medalist like there was a bidding war for fame and pomp. We all agree that our athletes should be given their just rewards and recognition for their hard work, but as ordinary Filipinos would put it: “Sana all.”

Some have pointed out and asked why Carlos Yulo got most of the added incentives, while the boxing bronze medalists got such a small slice of the cash and honor. Even worse were the claims that other athletes who competed and had relatively respectable finishes in their sports were not even invited to celebratory events or recognized, such as women in golfing, our pole vault fourth place finisher, etc.

Ironically, the more than P20 million-plus now being thrown at Yulo could very well have been used to fund the training of at least one competitive Filipino athlete in an individual sport instead of being given like bounty money for gold medals and yabang points for political donors.

What is nauseating about the whole thing is much of the reward money is from OPM. No, not from Original Pilipino Music, but from OTHER PEOPLE’S MONEY, namely the Filipino taxpayer. While we all celebrate and are wowed by the cash bonuses, many Filipinos forget that P20- or P30-million bonuses may come from bonuses or salaries of government part timers, or 20 or 30 vehicles for law enforcement or public hospitals.

If government officials and politicians want to reap the publicity from such generous rewards, let’s make sure it is coming from their pockets and not government funds.

Last but not least, before shouting to the world that we are paying out P20 million to P30 million for Olympic medals, let us first bring the athletes home, give all of them a proper homecoming, an all-inclusive parade and honorable mention to each and every athlete who spent four years trying to make the cut, working hard to compete, spending their own money and, win or lose, doing it all “Para Sa Bayan” and not “Para Sa Boto.”  

*      *      *

I finally took the risk and walked across the Sta. Monica-Lawton bridge that connects Bo. Kapitolyo, Pasig with Bonifacio Global City and it was stressful.

I confess that it was one of the scariest bridge crossings I ever did, only to be told by a friend that pedestrians are not allowed to cross over the whole length of the bridge but had to use the two multi-story stairs on each end of the bridge.

The problem is, there were no signs saying, “No entry beyond this point.” No signs directing pedestrians where to take the stairs and no signs saying, “No pedestrians allowed.” Unless you were familiar with the design and placement of the stairs and the bridge, you would not know that the stairs on the Kapitolyo side were accessible from another street corner. 

On the Makati-Kalayaan avenue side, the stairway may be OK in the daylight but at night, the area to the stairway is dark and risky. Next time I go to the area, I will make sure to take photos and post them on social media because I am sure the image of the multi-level stairway will go viral just like the couple of pedestrian bridge designs of the MMDA that netizens said were training for mountain climbing or water slides. 

The Sta.Monica-Lawton bridge is clearly anti-pedestrian, with only the middle portion wide enough to safely walk on, it is anti-handicap and anti-elderly. The bridge is not even maintained properly, as shown by all the clogged drainage grates where garbage has accumulated and has become boxes for growing weeds.

In each direction, there are two lanes and a bike lane that has been taken over by motorcycles. If Secretary Manny Bonoan can make the time, I would invite him to visit the Sta. Monica-Lawton bridge because he will surely see that with some correction, the bridge can be useful to all.

The bridge is wide enough to maintain two lanes in each direction, but instead of a narrow-painted bicycle lane on the same level as cars, the painted lane should simply be turned into a paved shared pedestrian and bicycle path and let the motorcycles join the rest of the cars.

This is no big sacrifice, given that the entire length of the bridge is only 613.77 meters long end-to-end and the busy part is probably only two thirds the entire length. The raised path for bicycles will also be a lot safer than the current situation where they are bullied by fast driving motorcycles. Besides which there are more pedestrians than bicycle riders crossing the bridge.

The DPWH can easily do the same expansion work that the Skyway implemented before at the Magallanes off ramp where steelworks was done to widen one lane. For the moment, it would give pedestrians some peace of mind if more lighting was installed on the stairways, especially on the Kalayaan side, and if a barangay outpost was visible just like on the Pasig side where a number of tanods were visible.

Let’s all pray that Secretary Manny Bonoan will act in order to maximize our benefits from a bridge that cost P1.857 billion (as of 2017).

*      *      *

E-mail: [email protected]