Crossroads and crossovers

By Virginia Jasmin Pasalo

THE road-widening project at the Manila North Road (a.k.a. MacArthur Highway) has focused its arguments on the projected traffic it was supposed to absorb but did not. This is because the Tarlac, Pangasinan, La Union Expressway (TPLEX), naturally redirected all major buses to its path, leaving the MNR absorb buses bound for other destinations less frequently travelled.

The road was constructed mainly for vehicles and did not consider the welfare of other road users and the residents in the areas affected. With no sidewalk in place, accidents frequently happen, as people compete for the use of the extended road, once serving as a sidewalk.

Crossing the other side of the road can literally mean a crossover to the great beyond.

Kalsada

ampetang ed kalsada
abetang la ra may kiew
asinit su katat
atektek ira’y kamarerua

maawang su kalsada
maples ira’y luganan
bimmatik may akulaw
timmikyab su sali to

man-usilan ira’y luganan
na ambagel ira’n lalaki
telek-telek, unsasayaw
sayaw na patey

dakel la’y apadala ed kalsada
balet apaet ni
aniani su unbabaliw
ed balo tan mas maawang
ya dalan

The road

it is hot on the road/ the trees have been cut/ flesh burns/ souls are scorched
the road is wide/ a bus speeds up / an elderly woman crosses/ her foot flies
vehicles race/ driven by mad men/ spinning, dancing/ the dance of death
the road has taken blood/ but still, too thirsty/ ghosts are crossing
the new and wider path.

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