Road Revolution Cebu – Version 2
I briefly peeped at the news last night while doing some home chores. Newscaster mentioned about Cebu’s Road Revolution. That struck me a bit since I knew it happened way back Independence Day – June 12. I should know, I was there. But as he went on with the news, it said something like it was going to happen today, 24 September – a second version. All I could say was “wheh?!” since I thought that was way too late for a news. They should have hyped the thing up way earlier to warn motorists and invite people to join the “fun”. Not a day before.Anyway, I got a better idea to enjoy the affair, but that would be my next blog entry. I went to get a feel of the event, just the same.
It was a different area of the city this time. If last ‘independence day’ it was Osmena Blvd from the capitol all the way to Plaza Independencia, this time I learned it was part of Colon St., from corner Osmena Blvd all the way to Lopez Jaena St., and from P. Burgos the Plaza Sugbo to around the heritage Monument and some nearby blocks or corners there. I happily walked all those areas and noticed one stark difference from the first version: The streets were clear all right, but there was nothing much compared to the Independence Day version. Very few bikers and I did not even spot where the skateboarders were.
Nothing on the streets mentioned, except for them being devoid of vehicular traffic. No throngs of families or friends enjoying the ‘bare streets’. In the first version, there were even bands and battalions of bikers and mobile music and kiosk vendors selling things. On this one, I enjoyed more of the altercations between enraged motorists, pedestrians versus traffic officers here and there – since those were the only spectacles I found hehe. Well, the first revolution was a happy Sunday while this one was probably an enraged Saturday hehe. Most people I saw were on a brisk walk probably rushing to their work or school.
Ah, there was some 30 or so students who walked around with two ‘artworks’ made of plastic bottles and a lot of (was that) scotch tape? I had fun watching them since every step they made seemed to be a bit more for the destruction of their already deformed artworks hehe! And they finally laid those ‘artworks’ to their abhorably trash condition when they reached that gas station across the Colon Street marker/obelisk. All I could muster was “what was that all about anyway?”! I asked one of these St. Paul College Foundation students what else was there to see in this ‘celebration’. The fast and excited reply was a very surprising “party tonight at the Outpost, 8PM”. Gosh! 
The Metropolitan Cathedral was unusually crowded. I found out there was some kind of a mass wedding where the mayor was ninong to everyone. Nothing to do with the road revolution, I was sure of that. The Plaza Independencia was merrily prepared. But for the wedding, not for the revolution, I was sure of that too! There was a ‘busful’ of Don Bosco kids on a tour but instead got caught in a traffic jam at the Parian District detour area. Driver was wearing a big frown, even telling heated arguments to the CITOM folks while a teacher instead led the kids in some kind of a rosary to keep them busy. I could hear them exclaiming “pray for us” repeatedly.Ill-prepared ‘revolution’ which I was sure elicited more of ill will from most everyone than anything else! That’s what I think. Very unlikely of Cebuanos when they hold public events. But I enjoyed the empty streets so I must say, more of these activities please! If only for my own personal agenda hehe.
And that’s my next story!
oh i see! mao diay heavy traffic las saturday afternon. i was clueless about the road revolution thingy, i thot naay procession... i got off the jeepney and was forced to walk to my destination. i pass by downtown and walked smack in the middle of colon as if i own it! u see a diffrent view of colon when u walked in the center of the street. (:
ReplyDeletethat's right, we haven't much time to prepare. we just piggybacked on RAFi's permit to road closure for their heritage walk.
ReplyDeletethe longboarders had an event in Dumanjug that's why there were only a few of them during the road closure.
we haven't organized thoroughly the activities of that day, sad to say.
we do apologize to the inconvenience we've caused to the public. T. Padilla was closed as they had their fiesta, a portion of SRP was closed for alay lakad, and a portion of osmeña blvd closed for a religious activity. it created a mess which we, the organizers of road revolution was not able to handle and control.
moving forward, we're doing the next road revolution in a more systematized manner.
thanks for featuring us!