ARE DIPLOMATS exempt from obeying traffic rules and regulations?

I am directing this question to the Department of Foreign Affairs because of an unfortunate incident I witnessed recently, when a luxury car bearing the Japanese flag and its back-up vehicle ignored traffic rules to get ahead of everybody else on the road.

On Aug. 3, at about 2:45 p.m., I was driving along the Centris Mall driveway, going toward Quezon Avenue, when a black Lexus with a Japanese flag counterflowed along the same driveway and cut in front of my vehicle. I blew my car horn to alert the driver to avoid hitting my car. The bodyguard in the back-up vehicle, a Toyota Fortuner with diplomatic plate 2065, rolled down his window and glared at me. He signaled me to stop blowing my horn. I followed. It was at that point that I thought a Japanese official or diplomat must be in the Lexus.

The convoy got stuck in front of my car for some two to three minutes because traffic was heavy along Quezon Avenue. When the convoy was able to move, the Fortuner weaved in and out to push other vehicles out of the way in order for the convoy to get ahead.

The other vehicles had no recourse but to move out of the Lexus? and Fortuner?s way.

Approaching the intersection of Quezon Avenue and Agham Road near Napocor, the two vehicles beat the red light but, just the same, they got stuck in the middle of the road because of the heavy traffic.

If President Aquino follows simple traffic rules, why can?t the Japanese alien and his staff do so too? I believe whoever was the official in the Lexus being escorted by the Fortuner should be sanctioned by the DFA for either instigating his driver to break traffic rules or for tolerating his driver?s and bodyguards? unruly behavior in the streets.
?OSCAR DIZON, oca_dzon@yahoo.com