EDSA uprising averted

It was a heartless and idiotic idea to begin with and it was just as well that BBM stopped it. It would have caused so much hardship that the political cost of the EDSA rehabilitation obviously exceeds the promised benefits.

- BOO CHANCO

"In the planned EDSA rehabilitation, there were many who worried, 'what will happen to our jobs? If the time we commute is already so long, it will add another one or two hours, we won't be able to go home anymore,'" BBM quoted the complaints he received.

"Besides, we saw new technology that had not been used in the planning of the EDSA rehabilitation. So, I instructed Transportation Secretary Vince Dizon and Secretary Manny Bonoan of the DPWH to pause the rehabilitation," BBM said.

Actually, it was DPWH Secretary Bonoan who refused to see the people's problems with the EDSA rehab plan. DOTr Secretary Vince Dizon had been trying to convince Bonoan to rethink the plan. But Bonoan couldn't see the political implications of causing so much hardship right on EDSA for two years (assuming no delays) leading to 2028.

Enough hardships to trigger another EDSA uprising for a project that many people do not even think is all that necessary or urgent!

Rene Montemayor, a reader of this column, wrote to say exactly that.

"During the past week, I had three round trips from the EDSA-Ortigas intersection to the EDSA-Roxas Blvd. and a round trip from the EDSA-Ortigas intersection to the EDSA-Ayala Avenue intersection. My estimate is that at least 80 percent of the concrete blocks on EDSA in the stretches of both sides on EDSA I mentioned are still good.

"I do not see the need to embark on a project to rip out most if not all these good concrete blocks. Perhaps a major "re-blocking" of the 10-20 percent of the damaged concrete blocks..."