I love walking. There was one time during my high school years that I purposely walked home from Intramuros to Singalong just to get a feel of the experience. One Good Friday around 2002, I just decided to try to walk continuously from Singalong to UP in Diliman and see how long it would take me to do it. Took me about three hours—this following my usual jeepney route that runs across the Pasig river through Taft-Quiapo-España-Quezon Boulevard.

The longest I’ve walked continuously would be when, with a group of co-workers, I trekked to a certain indigenous people’s community up North in Abra for a project of De La Salle University (DLSU). The most difficult trek I have done was when we lead a protest mobilization against US bases in the country in 1991, marching for four days from UP Diliman all the way to Clark Air Base in Pampanga.

My “walking time” has taken a dip since my right leg got run over by a jeepney in 2004. Since I recuperated from having had a very badly broken leg, my treks have been limited to mostly thirty minute walks to the nearest mall from my place. I also used to simply walk from my home to where I worked. Just took me about fifteen minutes. Now I have to commute daily for at least 1 hour and a half. When schools open “normally” once more, I will have to resume my daily commutes and my walking would be limited to going around campus and up and down a few stairs.

Every now and then I suddenly get the urge to do a “longer” brisk walk. Some days ago I just decided to walk from my place to certain point along Taft Avenue and just walk back home again just to cut through my daily routine under the quarantine period.

I know that I need to do more walking. But I have you noticed how hot the weather has been of late? This is one factor thatm I believe, tends to discourage walking in Manila, methinks.

Walking is good for one’s health. Health and fitness specialists are one in encouraging that we walk as much as we can. When one considers that riding in the usual motorized vehicles contributes to air pollution, then the soundness of walking becomes even more pronounced.

But how can one really be encouraged to walk as much as one can in this city called Manila? Manila with its side streets unlit and too narrow for safety especially at night? Manila with its sidewalks… what sidewalks? Manila with its double parking that make pedestrians and vehicles compete for narrow gaps of passage? Manila with its prone-to-flood places? Manila with its mega-polluted air? Manila with some of its traffic law enforcers moonlighting as kotong collectors?

Still, I lcan’t help but have affection for my Manila. Manila and its madness and mayhem. It is a challenge for one like me who is into social science to look at how Manila can move forward. But, yes, hope springs… Some years ago I got to hear of this notion of “inclusive mobility” and I was lead to the website www.walk21.com.

This e-site features initiatives that have flowed from this so-called Walk21 conference series, which has been established to pursue this vision: "To support, encourage and inspire professionals to evolve the best policies and implement the best initiatives, which create and promote environments where people choose to walk as an indicator of liveable communities." Interesting, right?

I got more interested as the site specifies that “the objectives of Walk21 are to respond to the growing demand for a partnership of the world’s policy makers, researchers, campaigners and practitioners to: Confirm the importance of walking issues at political and policy levels; Provide an international platform for an inclusive discussion; Acknowledge the research, practice and promotion undertaken so far and to highlight best practice; Identify the need for future research and opportunities for funding future networking.”

I think government and civil society should look more into this especially since we are going through this quarantine and mant of us are in fact being forced to walk more than is convenient or even healthy for some of us. We should seriously consider this advocacy as we create a better society after the pandemic.

Walk 21 says that inclusive mobility is all about “the right to accessible streets, squares, buildings and public transport systems regardless of their age, ability, gender, income level, language, ethnic, cultural or religious background, strengthening the freedom and autonomy of all people, and contributing to social inclusion, solidarity and democracy.”

This sounds very dreamy right now especially as we face a great shortage in mass public transport options in Manila under the widespread quarantine. Government’s questionable attitude and policy towards allowing traditional public utility jeepneys alone suggests a leadership seemingly devoid of any real concern for inclusive mobility in the current context.

Right now, jeepneys have the power to re-employ tens of thousands of Filipinos whose families have been going hungry. Jeepneys are also, hands down, still the cheapest means of transporation for the ordinary Juan and Juana. Why are we depriving ourselves of this mode then?

In addition, the “old” jeepneys are even safer to ride today during the pandemic as they are “air-cooled” so to speak. I agree with IBON Foundation’s argument that “the ban on traditional jeepneys should be lifted… [as] there are studies which indicate that open-air transport may have advantages over enclosed, air-conditioned transport in controlling the spread of COVID-19.”

So, as lovers of walking like me dream of one day being able to safely and healthily roam the streets of Metro Manila, we must first face the very real question of making mobility in Manila more inclusive, immediately. The traditional jeepneys are right here, still. They are a viable mass transport option. No need to reinvent the wheel, as it where. Just deploy them wisely.

Yes, the day will come when the traditional jeepney will become tu;y obsolete as a means of mass transport. That day, however, is not today. Our people—we—cannot be allowed to suffer so much.