Only a ‘Duterte solution’ for ‘desperate’ traffic situations

The newly implemented “no contact” apprehension of traffic violators once again demonstrates how naive or obtuse Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) officials are in dealing with traffic congestion all over Metro Manila. Such waste of public funds only stoke suspicions that the real motivation behind the policy is again the “tongpats” that normally go with any government purchases of needed equipment costing hundreds of millions in pesos. It’s such a lucrative racket in this country!

Here’s the real deal from the point of view of law-abiding motorists already sick and tired of half-baked, pea-brained MMDA solutions: Jeepney and bus drivers have long claimed entitlement to immunity from apprehension for any kind of traffic violation! Get to any street that intersects Edsa and you will see jeepney drivers clog traffic by using the corners as terminals to pick up or wait for passengers under huge signs that say: “Walang sakayan dito!” And the defiance of bus drivers is also so notorious along the whole stretch of Edsa we wonder why policymakers still don’t seem to have a clue. Those drivers simply have no respect for traffic rules. No CCTV camera is needed what the eyes can plainly see at any given moment!

Even without this new way to squirrel away public funds on another dubious traffic policy, the problems associated with reckless driving can easily be solved if only our traffic enforcers do their job conscientiously. Their remarkable ability to simply look the other way when jeepney and bus drivers make a mockery of traffic rules and regulations cannot but make many ask how much “payola” they are receiving every week from the pasaway operators of those public vehicles. Chances are, this new policy will be targeting mostly private car owners.

Most private car motorists are law-abiding. But when they see jeepneys often go “counterflow” and get ahead of the line without hearing any traffic enforcer blowing his whistle, they say in despair (for being so late for work or appointment): “What the heck! When in the arena of rascals, do as the rascals do!” That seems now to be the only way to survive in the street-jungles of Metro Manila “managed” by scalawags in uniform.

Just to illustrate the point: We once got dutifully in line on our way to cross Edsa toward Kamuning Street from Kamias Street in Quezon City. There must have been hundreds of vehicles patiently inching forward. Then suddenly jeepneys came hurtling past us on the left side, hogging the lanes for vehicles coming from the opposite direction. Nearing Edsa, they started competing for gaps to insert themselves into the mainstream. When we got to where the traffic enforcers were huddling, we asked why they could not see what just happened. They simply shrugged and threatened to cite us for obstruction unless we moved along and pretended nothing happened.

Quite evidently, unless someone really comes down hard on those pasaway traffic enforcers and on the syndicate that protects them, no amount of brainstorming for new ideas can put sanity back to our streets. “Contact” apprehension was never a more serious problem than no apprehension where it should really matter. The behavior of jeepney and bus drivers has become the barometer of how low discipline in the streets has sunk.

A Duterte-like gangsterism is obviously needed para matauhan ang mga lintek na iyan! Desperate situations call for desperate solutions!

—DINO M. CAPISTRANO, [email protected]