Thank you in advance, Bambi

Cong Corrales

I AM saddened that Gov. Bambi Emano has decided to close down Misamis Oriental Telephone System (Misortel) or the “Samsung line” as it was popularly called in our neighborhood. It was our first landline connection in our Villa Ernesto residence in Gusa. The now “iconic” dirty white Samsung telephone set with alphanumeric keys looked futuristic as opposed to our old “cross-bar” purple rotary phone we used to have in our rented apartment at 12th-30th Sts., in Nazareth Subdivision.

However nostalgic these may all seem, we need to move on to better things. As the great philosopher Barney Stinson once said: “New is always better.” The Capitol may not have a new telecom system to replace Misortel but I’ve got good news I heard from the grapevine.

As most Kagay-anons know, traffic in and around the Capitol has been the worst compared to any other government installation in the city. The bulk of the problem is that almost 60 percent of the streets in and around the Capitol have been used as parking space.

The street directly behind the Capitol is easily a four-lane road but parking in that area has made every motorist snake through it on any given day. I think I don’t have to articulate how hard it is to navigate in and around the Capitol. You experience it every day. Even commuters grumble every time a motorela driver opts to use that road to go to Centrio or Gaisano Mall.

Now, before you’re reminded of how bad the traffic is at the Capitol, I heard from a highly placed source at the Capitol that the good governor is planning to set this right by installing some kind of order in the way people park their vehicles in and around the Capitol.

Suffice it to say that this guy is in the inner sanctum of the good governor. So, I’ll take his word for it.

It turns out that the good governor has also been complaining about how bad the traffic is in and around the provincial compound in the city.

My source told me that in the coming months or before this year is over, the good governor wants diagonal parking directly behind the Capitol, and not the parallel parking that is currently in place.

Even with that alone, my source told me the streets in and around the Capitol would be 30 percent wider – ergo, easing traffic.

On behalf of everyday commuters in the city, I thank you very much, governor, for the plan to make our commuting lives better. I believe you’re the only governor in the Capitol’s contemporary history to do so–taking command on your immediate environs, that is.

Again, thanks, and more power to you. Cheerio.