If you are not employed in a company that doesn’t allow regular work-at-home schedules, you must experience the emotional, physical, and financial toll of heavy traffic in the Philippines. You wake up before the sun rises to wait for hours in a food line. You might squeeze yourself into the slow, narrow, stuffy MRT and LRT trains. Or you wait impatiently for someone to answer your request in your Grab app.
This is a contributed post and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Meet The Harris Family.
Meanwhile, on the road, you watch machinery from a heavy equipment company in the Philippines work and make noise in the middle of the night, busy in the process of construction. You say a little prayer inside, hoping that you would live to see the day that the sky ways and additional trains would ease the traffic and burden on your legs and shoulders.
On the other hand, some people deserve our attention. Those who work in late-night construction, including construction workers, engineers, and industrial workers, ensure that someday, our middle-class woes would be alleviated. Here’s how we can make things easier for them.
Take Precaution
Do not flash unnecessary lights nor honk your car horn for no reason during night drives. That is because the bulk of construction work takes place at night when most people are supposed to be asleep at home. Startling construction workers might endanger them. They might fall and injure themselves or worse. Some of them might not be equipped with the right safety gear and harnesses. You can also raise this issue to the city government and look for benefactors who can donate money to raise funds for the construction workers if you can’t provide the needed equipment.
Be Aware of Their Rights
Go the extra mile and raise awareness. Be aware of the building projects around your neighborhood. Pitch in with other people in your area in speeding up the construction process and strengthening it by giving out free meals for the construction workers. Offer tips, suggestions, and solutions in open forums with workers, engineers, and other personnel. Make sure that they are being paid and compensated adequately. Communication is key.
Patience is a virtue, so they say. But this is easier said than done. It is easier to tell someone to be patient if you are used to traveling in cars or if you are always sure that you will end up getting a ride. Not all Filipinos have this privilege. Most find it extremely difficult to move around, and a significant reason for this is the lack of funds and stable public transportation. Our transportation crisis not only affects our work and our wallets, but it also poses a problem in our health.
Conserving Energy
Many die inside ambulances during heavy traffic. The pollution you inhale during your daily commute might prove to be detrimental. And the physicality of commuting eats away the energy you could have saved for more fulfilling activities, like hobbies and recreation.
Hopefully, one day, this problem would be a thing of the past. Until then, we should look upwards, to the tractors and lifts and the brave men and women operating them, and never cease to hope for a better future.
