We had a nice comfortable ride on a well paved road from the new bridge to
Mahay and into Lemon. The landscape was innately countryside Butuan. It was
magnificently enchanting. We were in awe enjoying the open wide farmland which
spread down to the edge of the mountain. We came to the crossroad of the old
highway. The view suddenly turned ugly. Our driver warned us the moment we
entered an old rugged road.
"Hold on," he said. "We are now in opposition road."
We seemed to be immediately hit by an earthquake before he finished the
sentence. I was jolted off my seat. My head touched the roof. We were in
disarray as we kept bouncing up and down and side to side while navigating
along the dusty and potholes reddened roadway.
I had difficulties finding suited words to describe the road. This was because
it was not a road. It did not fit the category to be called one. It was sort of
a long and narrow strip clearing that was neglected from human involvement for
years. It traversed through rice field and coconut land to Barangay Tiniwisan
and on to Cabcabon.
The swaying from side to side was bearable. It was even exciting at times. But
bouncing up and down was hard on us. We feared that being inactive to this kind
of exercise in our senior's years; this type of body movement would somehow
fracture our hips. My sister was hospitalized when she came home to Canada for
hip injury from riding a tricycle on the same road.
We managed to remain conscious without dropping blood or breaking bones.
However, some of us were being helped out going down the vehicle. I noticed
that the ladies looked different. They looked elegant with their hair fixed and
facial make-up when we left. They were not the same people when we arrived.
They were moody with messy hair and dusty faces. They appeared to have aged a
lot while travelling the four-kilometer opposition road.
We were welcome by swarm of amorous langaw as we alighted. I was told before
that the infestation of flies in the barrio did diminish. This was true, but
the ladies were still quite irritated when horrific flies persistently desired
to be intimate with them. Something unintentional could have transpired while
we were along the bumpy road which agitated the flies to excessive infatuation.
With the ordeal the seniors had, they swore never ever to come back.
Our driver calling it "opposition road" have some substance in it. Cabcabon is
always going against the political grain of the administration. The neglect to
restore liveable condition from environmental abuses and its failure to provide
tolerable amenities shatter every ounce of credibility on city leadership.
Rural inhabitants believe that injustice applies on them is actually an
atonement on political stubbornness. There is a price for everything and they
are paying it day after day.
I attended mass at the local kapilya where pulpit sermon lambasted the city
like there was no tomorrow. Maybe there isn't anymore. The system strongly
dictates that good things are only awarded to those that truly obey. The
opposition road accurately exhibit s political vindictiveness. What's amazing
is that rural folks acknowledge it as customary.
There's a sad sense of acceptance. Barrio people forfeit their instinct to
oppose regardless of consequence. They don't care to whine anymore. They learn
to swallow their pride. Going against maltreatment is expensive and risky
undertaking. Resentment is muffled by prolong hopelessness. What's the use?
How can a land tenant makes much difference when his preoccupation in life is
only food to feed his family? He has no time for anything else. He is an easy
prospect to dominate.
Yes, tomorrow is lost when people admit adversity as normal and abiding fate.
They don.t care anymore. They already lost faith in man's integrity to make
things better. This is understandable. They had been repeatedly promised better
living for so long and all came out empty. It has come to a point where they
accept conditions as preordained.
But regardless of road condition, infestation of flies and polluted river from
industrial waste, Cabcabon still feels lucky. At least they haven't had the
plague of locust. Not yet anyway.
Meantime, they are living example to demonstrate in misery the high price of
political defiance. It's a matter of show and tell. This tactic is to allow
other villages to see the opportunity missed by not attuning with people at the
helm. The one hundred meter long cemented road in Barangay Tiniwisan is an
effective visual illustration of what could be when local folks have common
sense enough to behave blindly as conspiring automaton.
It takes a miracle to fix the opposition road. As I mentioned before that
residents of Cabcabon petitioned the government to fix their road. This was
during the time of Governor Curato. They had been promised well about it too.
They are now all dead and gone and so is the governor. Nothing happened. The
road is still bad today as it was then.
As I was just a tourist looking for fun, the trip along opposition road gave me
a thrill. It was entertaining. However, I was sad to realize after that
regardless of how sincere was my apology, I still lost good relation with lady
classmates. This was expected. They were not used to this kind of aggravation.
More so against the over zealous flies, which in my ungraceful conduct did
tickle my ribs. I was sorry, but with my odd sense of humor...it was funny.
Submit comments via the Discussion Board at:
http://www.butuanon.org/yabb/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.cgi?board=Essays
