Issuing a challenge is the In thing now.
It was inspired by the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge. ALS is Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, an incurable degenerative disease. Conceived by two Americans afflicted with ALS, the Ice Bucket Challenge asks someone to have a photo or video of him being drenched or he can drench himself with ice water or else donate $100 dollars to an ALS organization. He will then issue a challenge to more people daring to do the same or donate.
Or they can do both. The drenching and the challenge to other people should be posted in social media.
Never mind if many of those who had themselves on video being dumped with ice water on the head just wanted the publicity and didn’t bother to know what ALS is all about. It’s for a good cause anyway.
The ALS Ice Bucket Challenge is a huge success; donations (http://www.alsa.org) have increased tremendously since last year. The money will be used for research on the disease.
There’s a variation of the ALS Ice Bucket which is closer to the needs of Filipinos.
It’s the MRT Challenge hurled by former Commission on Elections Commissioner Gregorio Y. Larrazabal last Friday.
Larrazabal set the rules:
1. Top officials should ride a train once a day during rush hour, without bodyguards, for four weeks.
2. If you skip a week, you have to donate a month’s salary to the ABS-CBN Foundation, GMA Foundation or Gawad Kalinga Foundation.
Larrazabal said the reason behind the MRT Challenge is for officials running the various offices to know and understand a problem before they’ll be able to fix it.
“The #MRTChallenge is to make people open their eyes and ears. To listen. To help them know what the real problems are,” he said in his Facebook page.
An MRT ride has become a daily agony for thousands of commuters who depend on the train for daily transport to the office the past months. Queues are super long and take hours to get on the train, which is so overcrowded. Rains have made the situation for commuters more miserable.
Two weeks ago, the MRT got derailed at the Taft-EDSA station injuring 38 passengers. After that, a malfunctioning train has become an almost daily occurrence.
The deplorable situation is compounded by the seemingly callous attitude of government officials. Press Secretary Herminio Coloma had advised commuters to try other modes of transportation apparently of worse situation in buses.
Transportation Secretary Joseph Emilio Abaya, Jr. remarked that taking the MRT is a passenger’s “personal decision.” As if the passengers have a choice.
Larrazabal said he himself took the MRT last Friday. From his office in Intramuros, he took his car, then transferred to a jeepney in Makati to the Magallanes MRT Station at around 4:40 p.m.
He rode the MRT from Magallanes to the Quezon Avene Station. “Then walked about 1, 200 steps, “ he said adding that “Riding a jeepney and MRT on a Friday-Payday, during rush hour, while raining (some places were flooded, and my shoes soaked). You have to be in touch with reality.”
Larrazabal said, “Next week I’ll bring a folding bike and bike from the train station to my office.”
Before Larrazabal’s MRT Challenge, Abaya rode the MRT with his bodyguards. After his MRT ride, he said “it was pleasant” and assured the public that the MRT is “safe.”
He was widely criticized for taking the first coach reserved for women, children, senior citizens and persons with disabilities. But it was explained by persons close to him that he had to be at the front coach to be able to observe the driver and the path of the train.
Sen. Grace Poe also rode the MRT last Friday. She was seen lining up at the North Avenue station for an MRT ticket without bodyguards. (If she had security escorts, they were low key.) She got off at the Taft/Edsa station.
In a statement, Poe said she rode the MRT “to gain firsthand experience of the current situation of MRT commuters” in preparation for the Senate hearing on the MRT on Monday, September 1.
Poe was quoted as saying that in her conversation with MRT riders she got the impression that the situation is “not hopeless.”
Any takers among our officials of Goyo’s MRT Challenge?