This practice of walking funeral processions is primitive. By foot was the only way to go before wheels were invented. After wheels were invented, it made sense to hurry the dead to the cemetery (by limousines, SUVs, cars, jeepneys, tricycles) and spare the dozens, if not hundreds, of poor drivers waste of time, lost fares, expensive gasoline, motor and brakes wear-and-tear caught behind a funeral procession.

Too many highways allow this primitive practice. It is not only allowed, but encouraged by traffic managers who are paid cash for allowing the processions on busy roads.

When traffic bogs down on a main road, and vehicles are bumper to bumper and hardly moving, I’ve heard jeepney or bus driver start cussing, "P....g na, me pesteng patay nanaman!!" The dead are cussed. But it’s not the deads’ choosing. They ought to cuss the survivors (whose behavior may or may not have contributed to the death of that dead). The surviving spouse and family are the ones who want to make a display of their devotion by walking miles to the cemetery by foot. This is their show, while the entire driving public suffers.

Recently on the Marcos Highway in Marikina, what I suspect is an irate, inconvenienced driver completely lost it. Was he furious enough at the delay, and in his fury, decided to plow through the walking procession, aiming for the funeral car? The impact threw off the hearse, broke apart the coffin, ejecting the body of the dead. An elderly relative of the dead also in the procession was killed, and many were hurt during this afternoon tragedy.

Whew… what a trauma that was. A tragedy that was been waiting to happen. There must be other irate occurrences such as this, seeing that such walking processions go on many times a day on every highway. And too many inconvenienced drivers become irate at the unreasonable delays in traffic.

During that highway tragedy, the Marikina Traffic Division reported that those around pounced on the driver of the wayward vehicle. He was almost lynched by the crowd but for a few who came to his rescue.

Families usually schedule these walking funeral processions at peak traffic time. Families pay the barangay personnel or off-duty police to stop the traffic in the course of the funeral procession which could take a good part of two hours.

In previous arguments against walking funeral processions to the cemetery, I had suggested that families who insist on this great final show/devotion of walking their dead to the cemetery might consider doing it during non-peak hours of traffic.

How about doing their walk to the cemetery before sunrise at 4 a.m. or midnight? They can carry lighted candles which will make the ritual more solemn. Granted there will be no audience of neighbors, friends and those curious lining the sidewalks, but the family shouldn’t care whether there is an audience or not? This is all for the dead. At midnight or dawn, the participants will be more comfortable as they walk the distance to the cemetery.

Such procession at 11 a.m. or 4 p.m. under the Philippine sun is a killer for those grieving.