Can Lim extirpate the termites in MMDA?

The Anti-Distracted Driving Act (ADDA) prohibits the placing of any electronic device on the dashboard where it obstructs the driver’s “line of sight.” The crazy traffic managers of the Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA) eagerly latched onto that phrase as their authority to prohibit anything on the dashboard.

Although the ADDA does not include non-electronic items, the MMDA brainiacs found an old rule prohibiting them anyway. Thus, rosaries dangling from rear view mirrors, and toys and other “accessories” on the dashboards are no longer allowed.

The threat of huge fines is driving motorists nuts. This overreaching exercise of authority caused a lot of confusion and led lawmakers to ask MMDA to “suspend” the implementation of the ADDA (which the agency did) until its people get their act together.

Yet, there is a more ancient rule or regulation, born of pure common sense, that requires all motorists to turn their headlights on while on the road from dusk till dawn.  Did the MMDA ever care that jeepney drivers have been ignoring that rule since time immemorial—not to mention other elementary rules against stopping in the middle the road to load or unload passengers, or using any part of any road as their terminals? Never. Why? Obviously, a lot of its people are part of a syndicate being paid regularly to look the other way.

The new MMDA chair, Danilo Lim, finally got it dead-on: “Corruption (in the MMDA is) the root cause of traffic” (Metro, 5/24/17). The question is, does he have the balls to exterminate the termites systematically making that agency inutile?

JEREMIAS H. TOBIAS [email protected]