NOT SO FAST.

Byline: Tito F. Hermoso

We love to have the longest Christmas season in the world. Our radio stations play carols in September, just as the typhoons are getting into stride. We love the season of gift-giving so much we put up with horrible urban traffic from Halloween and to the Feast of the Three Kings. It's as if we already don't struggle every Friday.

All year round, you know it's Friday when the pace of the evening rush hour doubles in duration and traffic between Baclaran and Cubao slows down to walking pace. It starts in the late morning as company accountants plan their cash flows around Friday as check release day. Since check payments made at Friday noon can only turn good on the first banking hour on Monday, the huge weekend float looks good on the balance sheet and delays reckoning the company …