Exclusive

The “bosses” of President Aquino were furious. As APEC week opened, traffic advisories said Roxas Boulevard would be closed, but Coastal Road, Macapagal Boulevard and secondary roads would remain open.

Areas around the NAIA, however, were closed, so it didn’t take long before the Monday morning rush hour crowd realized the “open” roads all led to dead ends and they had nowhere to go. Even motorists with APEC car passes, like our foreign affairs reporter, were trapped.

Commuters at least could get off public utility vehicles and walk – from Coastal Road before MIA Road all the way to EDSA, where they were greeted with more traffic at a standstill. Until late Monday night, stranded commuters could be seen walking toward Las Piñas and Cavite along Coastal Road because the PUVs had stopped plying their routes.

No government official, whether national or local, thought of deploying trucks to assist the stranded commuters. Officials were probably too busy fitting their clothing for APEC events and checking if botoxed faces needed retouching.

P-Noy should have heard what his bosses were saying against him and his government as they trudged on a hot, humid morning along the empty Roxas Boulevard, dubbed the “saradong daan.” Macapagal Boulevard and the others were the “baradong daan.”

*      *      *

It’s good that this year’s Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit has “inclusive economies” for better lives as its theme.

Delegates may realize that the APEC gathering is a showcase of the exclusivity of Philippine society, with the usual .001 percent of the population having a grand party while keeping out the great unwashed. Roxas Boulevard, turned into an APEC road instead of merely an “APEC lane,” is the symbol of this VIP mentality.

There’s no argument that we should be gracious hosts and showcase the famed Pinoy hospitality. We have a lot of homegrown talent and unique products to present to our guests. We hope they have fun in Manila and enjoy the performances and feasts. Perhaps some of them can stay longer and visit our lovely countryside, where they will experience the natural Pinoy warmth that they won’t feel in the empty streets of Manila.

But there is also such a thing as efficient management. We were told that the original (sensible) plan was to just close the southbound lane of Roxas Boulevard, with the entire northbound lane kept open. But three foreign embassies reportedly insisted on the closure of the entire road all the way to Rizal Park. Shame on them – but the greater shame goes to the saradong daan administration, for agreeing to that madness. Pope Francis would have been displeased by the sight of empty streets – and there was intel, though raw, of an assassination plot during his visit here.

Last night the Rizal monument and park in Manila were all lit up. But there was no one to appreciate the scenery except the cops who shooed away our photographer who tried to take a picture for the public to see. Standing in front of the monument, he was told, was not allowed.

“APEC lane” has become a punch line, uttered with a sneer. Yesterday even the Skyway was closed. Why? Because P-Noy’s boss, US President Barack Obama, had arrived. The drive from Alabang to Manila took a grueling four hours. Some of our employees gave up trying to reach our office.

Even the Metro Rail Transit 3 on EDSA had to stop each time APEC convoys passed. Why? The train windows stay closed so no one can even spit at VIPs passing below. Not that the disruptions are new; the MRT has been breaking down regularly since the Liberal Party cabal in the transportation department awarded the maintenance service to an LP fund raiser and a relative of the well-connected former MRT general manager.

The same mindset that has made gated communities ubiquitous in this country has made the moneyed and political class want to keep APEC ultra-exclusive, with the hoi polloi banished except for the necessary evils – the muchacha class and bodyguards plus sycophants from various walks of life.

Police officials, taking their cue from their cacique superiors, had a brilliant advice to the harried public: if you don’t want traffic jams, stay home. This would certainly make police work much easier. It reflects the hope of daang sarado and APEC organizers about the ideal hosting: that Metro Manila’s 12 million people would crawl into the woodwork and stay out of sight for a week while the .001 percent parties with visiting VIPs.

Since Sunday it seems like hamleting or forced displacement of people has been imposed in Metro Manila by daang sarado. Unfortunately for the government, not everyone can be paid P4,000 to vanish from the streets of Metro Manila for a week.

Cops, when asked why perfectly empty roads and the Skyway were closed, had standard answers: “security protocol” and “that’s the order given to us.”

Who gave the order? No one can say, so public rage is directed at P-Noy.

*      *      *

You wonder how Manhattan does it. A prime target of all terrorists, the tiny island is home to the United Nations headquarters. It regularly hosts leaders from nearly 200 states and economies, with only the streets around the UN building sealed off. The leader of Israel, a prize target of Islamist extremists, can drop in at a moment’s notice without disrupting life in New York. P-Noy can treat himself and his entourage to hotdogs at one of the city’s iconic roadside hotdog stands without being a nuisance to New Yorkers.

In our case, the sidewalks along the APEC routes have been cleared of everyone and everything. Ermita and Malate on Monday night were ghost towns, except for some seedy bars where skimpily clad women sat around listlessly for lack of customers. Aristocrat restaurant, usually open 24 hours, survived World War II but shut down Monday night.

When P-Noy goes to Paris at the end of the month for the climate change summit, he will see that the French capital cannot be paralyzed either by one international gathering or the highest terrorist alert.

In our case, we don’t even have a credible terrorist threat in connection with APEC, but we are completely terrorized and paralyzed. Jemaah Islamiyah and the Abu Sayyaf would be pleased.

This is wang-wang in the time of saradong daan. VIPs don’t need sirens to part traffic on congested roads because they have entire roads to themselves.

As some of those who were forced to walk Monday morning along Roxas Boulevard grumbled, it’s worse than wang-wang. It’s buwang-buwang.