It has to be one of those days when you chose the convenient route.

Last Friday, instead of commuting, I decided to hail a taxi in order to get to school at the soonest possible time. I was assigned to report on a novel and was running late for class.

Let me then introduce Ser, the driver of the taxi I hailed. He was quiet most of the time, except when we got caught in traffic along Katipunan. I always eluded political conversations these days. I really don’t have the heart to endure too much frustration. I’m tired of always making a point, and burdened by this tendency to wallow in sheer helplessness, like screaming at the top of your lungs with no one listening.

“Grabe ‘yung UP ‘no? Biruin mo, naniniwala kay Lozada,” Ser said, breaking his silence. I retorted that even Miriam and Ateneo do, since we were passing them along the way, quite nonchalantly. “Nakapag-aral naman sila,” he stressed. At this point, I was appealing to him silently: “please don’t pursue the point, please don’t pursue the point.” He said that the case against officials behind the NBN deal should be brought to the proper venue such as the Ombudsman or the DOJ and that Lozada didn’t have evidence to support his allegations.

Raul Gonzales came to mind, and I had to draw the line somewhere. “Gusto mong si Gonzales ‘yung humawak ng kaso? O kaya si Guttierez na kaklase ni Mike Arroyo dati?” I asked. Taken aback, he affirmed his position, those people are indeed the proper officials to handle the case. I asserted that those institutions have been undermined by Arroyo, that while it is true that they are mandated to handle such cases, their constitutional responsibility has been subverted to serve only the interests of the regime. This is also the point when I started addressing him as Ser.

Hell, he drove me all the way to UP arguing why we shouldn’t make any effort to topple the regime, with the vigor and ruthlessness of Ermita. There are no viable alternatives, he said. It’s either we support Arroyo or sink into chaos. I said that there are possibly millions of alternatives, we could install a caretaker government or a transition council that would prepare the next elections. He didn’t buy it. I’m just a kid, for god’s sake. He probably thinks I should just sit still and read my books.

Everything I’ve said belonged to the realm of ideals, he said. What is important is reality, he added, with that annoying smirk that’s the surest sign of someone patronizing you. Ser, if the reality is that I can steal millions and get away with it, I’d rather spend my lifetime dreaming. Then I’d do anything just to be deluded.

So I had to go the Makati rally to vent off the rage I felt after one hell of a taxi ride. Just to make sure that I’m not alone, dreaming of a better state.

And when anti-riot police blocked the path of marching UP students and professors in Philcoa on the way to Makati, I took my place in the front row, with seething eyes, challenging them to bring it on.

Nothing can be resolved inside taxi cabs anyway. # Philippine Collegian

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