One evening last week at six o'clock or whereabouts, a bust dumped a woman in front of the barangay chapel in Canupao. The woman ran to the house porch and huddled there to take shelter. She was either sick or something since she did not behave normally. Barangay authorities, knowing that they do not have the facilities to give her aid, decided to escort her to the local PNP station. When asked from where she was she did not answer. Assuming her to be mentally disturbed the barangay officials left her with the police. The issue here is that, why did the bus personnel just dumped her? Some say she might be drunk or something but dumping her just like a piece of garbage is out of line. When one boards a bus for a destination, a tacit contract comes into effect that the boarder immediately becomes a passenger. The passenger entitles to be transported to his destination safely, while he pays for the price of transporting him.

In this case, the conductor might claim that the woman did ask the bus to stop so she could disembark. This is not likely since she could not respond when she was asked questions by the police. What might have happened is that when the conductor asked her destination, no answer was forthcoming so he just dumped her at any convenient place, which happened this time to be in Canupao. The most logical thing to do is to deposit her with the municipal authorities for her safety instead of dumping her some place. Assuming that she might have been asked to get off at some uninhabited area, what of her safety? Those who saw her get off were not able to identify the bus but if the identity is to be ascertained, one only has to notice the color and the time the bus had passed. We grieve to notice that human life is not considered so important. Those who can no longer fend for themselves are left on their own. And those who are not concerned simply dump them off as excess garbage. No one would like any interference in earning a buck but a human safety is more important. Let us hope that bus owners would appraise their employees in the importance of dealing with the public even with the useless ones. To someone they might not be useless...