PARADOXICAL
The faith chroniclesThursday, February 26, 2026
Memories of EDSA from a Thousand MRT Rides
(๐๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ง๐ฐ๐ญ๐ญ๐ฐ๐ธ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ช๐ด ๐ข ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ท๐ช๐ด๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ต๐ฆ๐น๐ต ๐ง๐ณ๐ฐ๐ฎ ๐ฎ๐บ ๐ข๐ณ๐ค๐ฉ๐ช๐ท๐ฆ๐ด. ๐๐ต ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ต๐ช๐ฎ๐ฆ ๐ ๐ธ๐ณ๐ฐ๐ต๐ฆ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ฐ๐ณ๐ช๐จ๐ช๐ฏ๐ข๐ญ ๐ท๐ฆ๐ณ๐ด๐ช๐ฐ๐ฏ ๐ฐ๐ง ๐ต๐ฉ๐ช๐ด ๐ฆ๐ด๐ด๐ข๐บ, ๐ ๐ฏ๐ฐ๐ต๐ช๐ค๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ข๐ต ๐ฏ๐ฐ๐ฃ๐ฐ๐ฅ๐บ ๐ฉ๐ข๐ฅ ๐ฆ๐ท๐ฆ๐ณ ๐ธ๐ณ๐ช๐ต๐ต๐ฆ๐ฏ ๐ข๐ฃ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ต ๐๐๐๐ in ๐ต๐ณ๐ข๐ท๐ฆ๐ญ๐ฐ๐จ๐ถ๐ฆ form ๐ง๐ณ๐ฐ๐ฎ ๐ข ๐๐๐ ๐ฐ๐ง ๐ข ๐ญ๐ฐ๐ธ๐ญ๐บ ๐ค๐ฐ๐ฎ๐ฎ๐ถ๐ต๐ฆ๐ณโmaybe ๐ข ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ง๐ญ๐ฆ๐ค๐ต๐ช๐ฐ๐ฏ ๐ฐ๐ง ๐๐ข๐ฏ๐ช๐ญ๐ข's ๐ฎ๐ข๐ด๐ด ๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ฅ๐ช๐ข ๐ฑ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ง๐ฆ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ค๐ฆ๐ด ๐ข๐ต ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ต๐ช๐ฎ๐ฆ, ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ด๐ฐ ๐ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฐ๐ถ๐จ๐ฉ๐ต ๐ฐ๐ง ๐ฅ๐ฐ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ช๐ต.)
Memories of EDSA from a Thousand MRT Rides
The first time I took the MRT, I felt I had somehow been spirited out of the danged P.I. All that gleaming metal, that telling scent of newly manufactured rubber, those squeaky escalatorsโeverything shimmered with a kind of improbable newness. It was like taking a brand-new car out for a test drive, a novelty that hums in your bloodstream long after the engine has been turned off. I remember feeling like the robot in "Short Circuit," freshly unboxed into the great wide open, overwhelmed by stimulus, capable only of exclaiming, โInput! Input!โ as his digital eyes gulped down the world. That was me, standing there on the platform, recording everything in sight as if afraid the vision might vanish.
After that initiation, I seldom took the MRT. There was no pressing needโexcept on those rare days when I had to be in Cubao from Ayala in what felt like split seconds. Years later, when I left the comfort zone of Makati and found employment in faraway Quezon City, the train ceased to be an occasional convenience and became a daily ritual. Becoming a regular meant becoming, in some quiet, unconfessed way, a dependent. Twice a day, out of sheer necessity, I surrendered myself to its rhythm. And in doing so, I was forced to regard the experience anew.
The two-way ride soon lost its novelty. It hardened into familiarity, and familiarity, as they say, is the breeding ground of contempt. I fully expected my old, contemptuous self to surface. For a born pessimist, that would have been the logical progression. Yet strangely, after two months of five-day-a-week commuting, I could not muster the disdain. Instead, the ride became a small, improbable blessingโa breath of fresh air in my otherwise unglamorous existence as a commuter.
Each day I stepped into coach after coach carrying a cocktail of clashing, sometimes cryptic feelings. Yet the aftertaste was always delicate. There was nostalgia, for one thing. I personally knew the PR man tasked to handle the public affairs side of that monstrous undertaking when this behemoth was still a blueprint and a prayer. His name was Tony Vasquez. I remember how we, the long-suffering users of EDSA, endured monthsโyearsโof dust, detours, and traffic-induced despair. We told ourselves, half in jest and half in threat: It better be darned serviceable, or thereโd be hell to pay.
And then there it wasโon that battered corner of EDSA at Pasay Road (now Arnaiz Avenue)โa giant billboard rising like a peace offering: โCubao to Makati in 15 minutes!โ It featured a generic, street-smart construction worker as poster boy, neon lights blinking reassurances into the night: โSafety First!โ โPlease bear with us.โ โYour taxes are working for you.โ Iโm not entirely sure which line did the trick, but the campaign went on to earn international recognition in Finland a year or so later. My friend must have smiled a private, vindicated smile.
Far from inspiring contempt, the giant, er, caterpillar ride became something I regarded with fondnessโthe way one might cherish an extended ride on a roller coaster in Enchanted Kingdom, our own humble Disneyland in Sta. Rosa. Sometimes I would imagine they might as well install a 360-degree loop somewhere over Magallanes, overlooking the Skyway, or at Cubao where it intersects with LRT-2. To complete the carnival, they could add horror trains at Buendia and Ayalaโthe stations that dip into tunnels, our closest approximation to a subway. For someone prone to exquisitely pompous thoughts and spectacularly implausible scenarios, the MRT provides a most welcome theater.
It complicates my embarrassingly simple life even as it transports me efficiently from point A to point B. I find myself paraphrasing Pico IyerโโTo travel is to taste hardshipโโwhile half-expecting someone to shout โEmergency!โ into the compressed air. At other times, I soundtrack the entire stretch of EDSA with techno or punk rock from my brotherโs iPod, testing how rhythm alters perception. And in the midst of meditating on the fate of nations, I am forced into the most pedestrian of multitasking: wedged between a seatmate coughing nonstop and reeking of freshly pounded garlic, and the exquisite dilemma of where exactly to rest my eyes so as not to intrude upon the geography of strangersโ knees. There is unpredictability within the ritual, and it is this that keeps boredom at bay.
As the train glides along with almost clockwork regularity, the window becomes a moving frame through which the city reveals its contradictions. You begin to notice things you had long taken for granted. Hotels painted in Day-Glo defiance announce themselves as both the gaudiest and ugliest structures in the metro. The glinting tiled roofs of Corinthian Gardens and Blue Ridge mansions flash by, prompting the perennial question: will every Filipino ever afford such a roof over his head? And then there are the billboardsโBorgy Manotocโs giant Swatch ad mug staring down, with impunity, at the brass statue of Our Lady of EDSA near Robinsons Galleria, as if commerce and devotion were locked in a silent duel.
Weirder thoughts sometimes ambush me. Once, unprovoked, I concluded that EDSAโs traffic problem could be solved if those working in Makati and Pasay simply swapped homes with those commuting from Quezon City. A housing exchange as urban salvation. It makes perfect senseโat least at 60 kilometers per hour above gridlock.
An MRT ride also induces a kind of disorientation akin to air travel. Working in Quezon City after a lifetime in Makati is its own culture shock. QC, home to media giants like ABS-CBN and GMA, feels more like an NGO and bureaucratic enclave, far removed from the glass-tower certainties I once knew. I am no longer sure which nerve center of the metro possesses more character; perhaps each is merely a mirror held up to a different national aspiration.
The speed of the train collapses distances that once required desert-caravan patience. Before the MRT, reaching Novaliches from Taft Avenue felt like an expedition. The long hours prepared you psychologically for difference. That lagโthose hours of mental recalibrationโare now erased. Efficiency bridges the gap, but something indefinable is lost behind the triumph of punctuality.
The line was built during the administration of President Fidel V. Ramos under a build-operate-transfer scheme, a $655-million gamble on speed and structure. Thirteen stations punctuate 6.4 kilometers of EDSA, offering vantage points that vary in altitude and attitude: treetop-level, street-level, subterranean, mangy, billboard-choked. At roughly thirty minutes end to end and carrying hundreds of thousands daily, it is both infrastructure and metaphor.
Compared with LRT-1โwhich slices through the intimate, decaying grandeur of old Manilaโthe MRT offers a more panoramic, less intimate survey of the New World we have assembled along EDSA. The LRT is visceral, earth-level, thick with prerecorded sales pitches of โMura lang, piso isa!โ and elbow-to-elbow humanity. The MRT, by contrast, feels slightly more detached, even when rush hour hurls a tsunami of warm bodies your way.
For a maximum of fourteen pesos one way, you are granted a panorama of a grimy, topsy-turvy, strangely cosmopolitan metropolisโcapable of summoning from you the entire gamut of emotion at a fast clip. This slithering landmark does more than ferry commuters. From its rarefied vantage point, you cannot help but assess how life in the P.I. has unfolded since those four fateful days of February 1986โthe longest days this country has ever known.
Standing on a moving platform of steel and rubber, suspended above traffic and history, I can't help but feelโdespite everythingโa flicker of pride. It is easy to forget it, but this is the street where we made bloodless, peaceful revolutions possible, not only in the Philippines but around the world.
Archives
01/01/2004 - 02/01/2004 02/01/2004 - 03/01/2004 03/01/2004 - 04/01/2004 04/01/2004 - 05/01/2004 05/01/2004 - 06/01/2004 06/01/2004 - 07/01/2004 07/01/2004 - 08/01/2004 08/01/2004 - 09/01/2004 09/01/2004 - 10/01/2004 10/01/2004 - 11/01/2004 11/01/2004 - 12/01/2004 12/01/2004 - 01/01/2005 01/01/2005 - 02/01/2005 02/01/2005 - 03/01/2005 03/01/2005 - 04/01/2005 04/01/2005 - 05/01/2005 05/01/2005 - 06/01/2005 06/01/2005 - 07/01/2005 07/01/2005 - 08/01/2005 08/01/2005 - 09/01/2005 09/01/2005 - 10/01/2005 10/01/2005 - 11/01/2005 11/01/2005 - 12/01/2005 12/01/2005 - 01/01/2006 02/01/2006 - 03/01/2006 03/01/2006 - 04/01/2006 04/01/2006 - 05/01/2006 05/01/2006 - 06/01/2006 06/01/2006 - 07/01/2006 07/01/2006 - 08/01/2006 08/01/2006 - 09/01/2006 09/01/2006 - 10/01/2006 10/01/2006 - 11/01/2006 11/01/2006 - 12/01/2006 12/01/2006 - 01/01/2007 01/01/2007 - 02/01/2007 02/01/2007 - 03/01/2007 03/01/2007 - 04/01/2007 04/01/2007 - 05/01/2007 05/01/2007 - 06/01/2007 06/01/2007 - 07/01/2007 07/01/2007 - 08/01/2007 08/01/2007 - 09/01/2007 09/01/2007 - 10/01/2007 10/01/2007 - 11/01/2007 11/01/2007 - 12/01/2007 12/01/2007 - 01/01/2008 01/01/2008 - 02/01/2008 02/01/2008 - 03/01/2008 03/01/2008 - 04/01/2008 04/01/2008 - 05/01/2008 05/01/2008 - 06/01/2008 06/01/2008 - 07/01/2008 07/01/2008 - 08/01/2008 08/01/2008 - 09/01/2008 09/01/2008 - 10/01/2008 10/01/2008 - 11/01/2008 11/01/2008 - 12/01/2008 12/01/2008 - 01/01/2009 01/01/2009 - 02/01/2009 04/01/2009 - 05/01/2009 05/01/2009 - 06/01/2009 06/01/2009 - 07/01/2009 07/01/2009 - 08/01/2009 08/01/2009 - 09/01/2009 09/01/2009 - 10/01/2009 10/01/2009 - 11/01/2009 11/01/2009 - 12/01/2009 01/01/2010 - 02/01/2010 02/01/2010 - 03/01/2010 03/01/2010 - 04/01/2010 04/01/2010 - 05/01/2010 05/01/2010 - 06/01/2010 06/01/2010 - 07/01/2010 07/01/2010 - 08/01/2010 08/01/2010 - 09/01/2010 09/01/2010 - 10/01/2010 11/01/2010 - 12/01/2010 01/01/2011 - 02/01/2011 02/01/2011 - 03/01/2011 03/01/2011 - 04/01/2011 04/01/2011 - 05/01/2011 05/01/2011 - 06/01/2011 06/01/2011 - 07/01/2011 07/01/2011 - 08/01/2011 08/01/2011 - 09/01/2011 09/01/2011 - 10/01/2011 10/01/2011 - 11/01/2011 11/01/2011 - 12/01/2011 12/01/2011 - 01/01/2012 02/01/2012 - 03/01/2012 03/01/2012 - 04/01/2012 04/01/2012 - 05/01/2012 05/01/2012 - 06/01/2012 06/01/2012 - 07/01/2012 07/01/2012 - 08/01/2012 08/01/2012 - 09/01/2012 09/01/2012 - 10/01/2012 10/01/2012 - 11/01/2012 11/01/2012 - 12/01/2012 12/01/2012 - 01/01/2013 01/01/2013 - 02/01/2013 02/01/2013 - 03/01/2013 03/01/2013 - 04/01/2013 04/01/2013 - 05/01/2013 05/01/2013 - 06/01/2013 06/01/2013 - 07/01/2013 07/01/2013 - 08/01/2013 08/01/2013 - 09/01/2013 09/01/2013 - 10/01/2013 10/01/2013 - 11/01/2013 11/01/2013 - 12/01/2013 12/01/2013 - 01/01/2014 01/01/2014 - 02/01/2014 02/01/2014 - 03/01/2014 03/01/2014 - 04/01/2014 04/01/2014 - 05/01/2014 05/01/2014 - 06/01/2014 06/01/2014 - 07/01/2014 07/01/2014 - 08/01/2014 10/01/2014 - 11/01/2014 11/01/2014 - 12/01/2014 01/01/2015 - 02/01/2015 03/01/2015 - 04/01/2015 04/01/2015 - 05/01/2015 05/01/2016 - 06/01/2016 07/01/2016 - 08/01/2016 08/01/2016 - 09/01/2016 02/01/2018 - 03/01/2018 03/01/2018 - 04/01/2018 07/01/2018 - 08/01/2018 04/01/2019 - 05/01/2019 05/01/2019 - 06/01/2019 09/01/2019 - 10/01/2019 02/01/2020 - 03/01/2020 04/01/2020 - 05/01/2020 05/01/2020 - 06/01/2020 06/01/2020 - 07/01/2020 07/01/2020 - 08/01/2020 08/01/2020 - 09/01/2020 09/01/2020 - 10/01/2020 01/01/2021 - 02/01/2021 10/01/2021 - 11/01/2021 11/01/2021 - 12/01/2021 12/01/2021 - 01/01/2022 05/01/2022 - 06/01/2022 06/01/2022 - 07/01/2022 08/01/2022 - 09/01/2022 10/01/2022 - 11/01/2022 02/01/2023 - 03/01/2023 08/01/2023 - 09/01/2023 10/01/2023 - 11/01/2023 12/01/2023 - 01/01/2024 01/01/2024 - 02/01/2024 02/01/2024 - 03/01/2024 05/01/2024 - 06/01/2024 07/01/2024 - 08/01/2024 08/01/2024 - 09/01/2024 09/01/2024 - 10/01/2024 10/01/2024 - 11/01/2024 11/01/2024 - 12/01/2024 01/01/2025 - 02/01/2025 03/01/2025 - 04/01/2025 04/01/2025 - 05/01/2025 05/01/2025 - 06/01/2025 06/01/2025 - 07/01/2025 07/01/2025 - 08/01/2025 08/01/2025 - 09/01/2025 09/01/2025 - 10/01/2025 10/01/2025 - 11/01/2025 11/01/2025 - 12/01/2025 12/01/2025 - 01/01/2026 01/01/2026 - 02/01/2026 02/01/2026 - 03/01/2026
Subscribe to Comments [Atom]