Another impractical legislative proposal

Our traffic problems, particularly in the metropolis, are caused not so much by a lack of appropriate laws as by the government’s failure to implement existing laws.

The proposal of Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian to pass a law prohibiting the sale of motor vehicles to persons without garage is rather impractical, even an unnecessary one. It will simply add another law that is not only difficult to implement, but may also create a new source of corruption or other under-the-table deals inside the Land Transportation Office or other government agencies that will be tasked to implement it.

Let’s get real. Most, if not all, of the vehicles that daily constitute the heavy  traffic in the metropolis do have garages.  But garages are private parking spaces for vehicles not in use, or whose owners are in their respective homes, resting.  In other words,  at any given time, every vehicle in any given street has a rightful purpose to be  there, not necessarily because its owner has no garage.

It is true that vehicle owners whose houses do not have a garage are forced to park along city streets or right in front of their houses. But this generally happens during the night, when the traffic situation in that area is not as intolerably heavy as it is at daytime, so as to cause our legislators undue alarm.  If at all, the more acceptable solution to problems like this is strict implementation of the no-parking rules, definitely not legislation.

RUDY L. CORONEL,

[email protected]