Hang on to your vehicle plates!

The front page news of the "no plate, no travel" policy of the NAKTF or the National Anti-Kidnapping Task Force will surely bring about one thing — increased incidents of car plate thefts.

Now that the bad elements know that all vehicles without plates would be stopped, they would just merely make sure that the vehicles they use would have plates (most possibly stolen ones) in order to have a freer access to road travel with less chances of being stopped. In the meantime, law-abiding motorists that have not been issued plates by the LTO for one reason or another (mainly due to bureaucratic red tape), which is not the vehicle owner’s fault, will have to bear the brunt of this policy. That means that they would have to probably endure being stopped to show their vehicle’s registration papers several times along the way before finally reaching their destination until the time the LTO would have effect the release of their plates. And painfully the whole scenario is prone to corruption. Or worse some over eager cop would blindly make an arrest. Worst — just shoot up your car!

But I guess the policy has its advantage in the government’s fight against crime. Then again it is also the government’s obligation that the populace is spared from harassment or inconvenience, especially if it’s not through their own fault but due to bureaucratic inefficiency. But then again, how can I be so unrealistic?

I guess for those of us who already have our plates, we just have to be more vigilant and protect them from theft. Let’s weld them to our vehicles, if possible.

Except For A Few — All Will Be There

Sorry, but if you plan to see any of the executives in the local automotive industry tomorrow, better make sure first they’ll be in the office because chances are most of them will be swinging their golf clubs at the Riviera Golf and Country Club in Cavite.

Tomorrow marks the day when most of those in the industry, normally in cut-throat competition against each other, would be together for the entire time to finish 18 holes in the 1st SPMJ Invitational Golf Cup Tournament.

The "golf-for-a-cause" event is a fund-raising project of the Society of Philippine Motoring Journalists to help underwrite the production of teaching modules and audio-visuals on traffic education and road safety for elementary and high school students. The group, which is composed of dedicated motoring journalists who represent different publications and media including this writer, aims to go around the different schools in Metro Manila and all over the country to distribute these teaching modules to principals and teachers and to show these audio-visuals to the students. To dramatize the promotion of awareness to the importance of traffic education and road safety among the youth, we hope to bring with us motoring and motor sports personalities to answer the students’ questions in an ensuing open forum.

Further to these efforts, SPMJ hopes to initiate a strong lobby in Congress right after the elections for a legislation to have traffic education and road safety part of the elementary and high school curriculum in the country.

Ultimately the goal of the "society" is to build a downsized replica of an actual city, complete with intersections, overpasses, parking areas and all other elements necessary to simulate actual city driving conditions and give these students "hands-on" seminars by qualified instructors.

All the members of SPMJ have a covenant to spend all their efforts and time to ensure the success of these projects but look at the business sector and even private individuals to help underwrite the costs. Everybody that matters in the automotive industry made sure that they get to be counted as part of those who support the advocacy by way of their sponsorship in this fun golf tourney. According to many of them it’s a win-win situation of being able to support a worthy project and have fun and enjoy the fellowship with other members of the industry.

Tee-off is scheduled at 8 am with invited members of the media part of every flight that’s composed of players coming from the different teams. Individual awards for three classes shall be given out separately for the automotive firms and for the media. A Team Champion Trophy shall be awarded to the winning team for it to hold on until a new champion claims it in the succeeding tournaments, which are planned to be held at least once a year. Championship medals shall be awarded to all the members of the winning team. Any team that wins the tournament three times would have the right to keep the "Championship Cup" forever.

Yes, almost everybody in the industry showed their unqualified support for the project that would benefit our children and our children’s children — almost anyway.

Pit Lane Notes

"It was a humdinger of a race." Chris Goodwin took the words right out of my mouth. The Australian Grand Prix was so predictable, it hurt. Off-season notes looked promising — everyone was saying that Williams’ and McLaren’s cars were every bit as good as Ferrari’s, and Renault wasn’t far behind. A lot people were expecting to see a tight, exciting race, one that would keep us die-hard fans at the edge of our seats. But instead, what did we get? Practically the exact same thing we’ve been watching year in year out in the last several seasons: a Ferrari one-two. Michael Schumacher and Rubens Barrichello or Ferrari was simply in a league of their own.

It was a very disappointing day for Kimi Raikkonen and McLaren; the young Fin had to stop in the 10th lap due to mechanical failure. However, David Coulthard did manage to salvage a point for himself and his team. I bet he’s just trying not to think of the fact that he came in first in this track last year.

The BMW-Williams boys did slightly better as Ralf Schumacher came in fourth and Juan Pablo Montoya came in fifth. Fernando Alonso had a magnificent race, coming in third — right behind Barrichello — and teammate Jarno Trulli grabbed 2 points at seventh. Jenson Button surprised a lot of people by claiming the sixth spot, and has assured press people that this is just the beginning.

What can we expect from Sepang on the 21st? All we can do is hope that the rest of the teams would catch up with the intensely competitive Ferraris or we’re going to have a very boring 2004, F1-wise. It’s back to the drawing board for Williams, Renault, and especially McLaren.

Motoring Tip Of The Week

As summer sets in so do plans for out-of-town trips take shape. A very important part and parcel of these plans should be to have your vehicle serviced and tuned up to perfect running condition.

A vehicle that refuses to start on the day of a long-drawn blueprint for an exciting trip to the beach can ruin the best of plans. Even if your vehicle starts, what if it stalls? Even if it starts and does not stall, what if it refuses to stop — brakes failure?

Having your vehicle thoroughly checked and tuned up may not necessarily guarantee a trouble-free drive but these could tremendously increase your chances of not getting into basic mechanical trouble and having an enjoyable trip.

Don’t scrimp on the check-up and the tune-up. You might end up spending more if you do. Take care of your vehicle and you’ll go far.

Happy Motoring!!!

For comments: (e-mail) motoring/today-star@sunshine-tv.com.