“Does anyone have a P500 bill?”
Someone waved a crisp paper bill in the air and Atty. Antonio Oposa Jr., the internationally renowned authority on environmental law, reached out for it.
“Now, does anyone have a match?”
Nervous giggles erupted from the audience at the James Herring Audio Visual Room at Foundation University last Thursday, where Oposa was giving a talk on road sharing, his current passion.
After a few seconds, student did bring out a match and Oposa ordered him to burn the P500 bill, as the audience anxiously watched on the edge of their seats. The match was lit and placed under the paper bill, when Oposa suddenly reached out and grabbed the bill, to everyone’s relief.
But the lesson was delivered. “You all felt uneasy about the idea of burning the P500 bill,” Oposa said, “yet whenever we drive a car, that’s what we do — we burn money!”
In a typical classroom-style discussion, the law professor who is a 2009 Ramon Magsaysay Awardee, asked a member of the audience composed of students and faculty of Foundation University, St. Paul University of Dumaguete, Silliman University and some community members, to stand and read the captions on a drawing of a bicycle and a car which were flashed on a screen. “This,” a man reading the caption for the bicycle said, “runs on fat and saves you money.” And the caption for the car: “This runs on money and makes you fat.”
Oposa said it is not necessary to ride a car or a four-wheeled vehicle to get from point A to point B. “One can walk or take a bike, but the problem is that there is nowhere to walk because the sidewalks are uneven and sometimes being used as parking spaces.”
He cited statistics that showed that only two percent of the population own cars, “yet they have 98 percent of the road while the 98 percent of the population who don’t own cars are relegated to only two percent of the road.” This statement made the audience, especially the bikers, runners and environmentalists, nod in approval.
To solve this inequitable situation, Oposa is recommending a revolutionary idea to start a mind shift — road sharing. Using a rope, Oposa demonstrated the concept in an impromptu activity, dividing the busy two-lane Perdices Street in half, reducing traffic of cars, tricyles and motorcycles to a crawl, leaving the other half to pedestrians, runners and cyclists.
The activity, which lasted for some 30 minutes, was immediately met with criticism online from netizens who thought the activity was another traffic experiment conducted by the City of Dumaguete, due to presence of personnel from the Traffic Management Office.
However, the criticisms ended when proponents and backers of the project went online to explain the concept of road sharing.
Foundation University, which gave Oposa an honorary Doctor of Humanities degree in 2011, gave its full backing for Oposa’s program by sponsoring the activity. “We’re happy to be part of the movement for positive change in Dumaguete,” Dr. Mira Sinco, university president, said.
There are better designs of a shared road, Oposa said, as he planted malunggay (horse radish) in the middle of a private road in barangay Bagacay and led in the planting of vegetables and root crops in the riverbank beside the road. “We have to teach our children to share. These vegetables will be for everyone.
Volunteer proponents of the Road Sharing movement from Pasig and Cebu also joined the activity and helped explain to barangay residents what the movement was all about.
The concept of road sharing, Oposa explained is not a request addressed to local government units but a legal petition using the power of the people to propose an Ordinance called People’s Initiative. This law says that a minimum of 50 voters can sign a proposal to the Barangay, which has 30 days to approve it. If the Barangay does not approve it, the petitioners can petition for a referendum with the Comission on Elections.
“The People’s Initiative has never been tested beyond the recall proceedings for elected local officials,” Oposa said.
Backing this initiative is Executive Order 774 series of 2008, which tasks the Department of Transportation and Communications to transform the transportation sector. “The new paradigm in the movement of men and things must follow a simple principle: Those who have less in wheels should have more in road,” he said.
Oposa said cars may be a good thing to have, especially if one travels long distances. But people don’t really need cars in a small city like Dumaguete, where one can walk from one side of town to the other in a matter of minutes.
To achieve this, he said the local government units should make walking a pleasant experience by planting trees for shade and by providing lanes for bicycles and pedestrians.
Having too many vehicles on the road can lead to traffic congestion, which cost the Philippines losses in human productivity amounting to Php 137 billion in 2011 alone, Oposa said.
“We live in the richest and most beautiful country on earth but we have been swamped by the tsunami of western influences,” Oposa said, as he slammed the Los Angeles image of cars on the road as an indicator of development.
The movement for road sharing is also being felt in cities like Cebu, Iloilo and Pasig.
Ever pressing forward, Oposa said the time for talk is over. “Awareness is good but awareness without action is like a bow without an arrow. Useless each without the other.”
