President Rodrigo Roa Duterte again placed Metro Manila and several key provinces under General Community Quarantine. What it means is that companies may only operate at 50% sans public transportation. What’s happening in reality is that workers are trying to report to work but are surprised to find nothing except tricycles on the road. Meaning, no jeepneys and no buses.

Katangahan right? You order firms to resume business operations but you conveniently left out public transportation. How in hell would these workers go to work and return home?

There’s an answer there— buy yourself a motorcycle or better yet, bike yourself to work. Are these people too crazy?

I know where this biking thing originated— when several of our government officials saw Chinese people biking their way to work. Let me just remind these gentlemen that we have a different environment here.

China has a developed public transport system which even assures safety of bikers using their main thoroughfares. Thanks to our transport officials, none of these structures exists here in Metro Manila.

It’s dangerous biking in Manila simply because of lack or absence of safeguards along the streets. And let me remind again these transport officials that the reason why engines were invented and horse drawn carriages came to life because not everyone can just hop on a bicycle and use their physical strength to will themselves to wherever they want to be.

Imagine a factory worker who already worked eight hours straight being forced to bike her or his way home from their factory several kilometers away? That’s torture.

Yes, any millennial can bike her or his way to wherever and that’s their choice. Now, people are being forced to bike because the very same government whose responsibility is to ease their sufferings and burdens want to add extra suffering by limiting the presence of buses and jeepneys on the road. That is as stupid as anything heard or seen anywhere!

Why are you being encouraged to bike? Two reasons: one, lack of public transport. Two, the biking industry is dominated by Chinese suppliers and manufacturers. There’s a whole economic ecosystem that awaits revitalization.

Now, even well-meaning cycling enthusiasts are being used to turn a portion of EDSA into a cycling lane so that the bulk of commuters who will be deprived of their right to transportation due to the construction of a single bus lane along the nation’s superhighway will be forced to become bikers. Crazy.