Ivler-ned nothing from this encounter

As The Philippine STAR’s Business Motoring pages were being put to bed last week, the now-notorious Jason Ivler arrest was making the headline news. At around that same time, the implicating photographs of Mr. Trooper, last week’s main subject in Andy Leuterio’s biting “Vigilance in the time of Facebook”, was making its rounds in local car enthusiast websites. Road rage was suddenly all the rage. Call it timeliness, call it serendipity…but we simply felt that we had to publish Mr. Leuterio’s story. And, averse as we are to jumping on any kind of bandwagon, we still subsequently felt the need to share our two centavos worth on the Ivler case. And so here we are…

A week has passed since that time. The ongoing drama that is now filling up our television screens and collective consciousness involves the mother of the accused poster boy for road rage. Marlene Aguilar, sister of folk singer Freddie Aguilar (yes, he of Anak fame – the irony is so thick it’s almost overwhelming), has naturally come to the defense of her son, Jason Ivler. Understandably so – one cannot expect any less from any mother. Unfortunately, her arguments in defense of her embattled son have gone from being of the desperate kind to being downright illogical and absurd.

At first, she tried to invoke some sort of “diplomatic immunity”, arguing that her son – a Filipino-American who as a member of the US Rangers served in the Iraq war – ought to be treated with kid gloves. “I’m appealing to the US embassy for them to protect him (Ivler) from Philippine authorities,” Aguilar said in an interview.

Next, she accused the NBI agents who successfully nabbed her son from her home in Quezon City of violating Ivler’s human rights. They had treated him like an animal, she argued.

Okay. Hard as those arguments are to swallow, we get it. She was simply trying to find a way to ease her son’s pain and to protect him. Let’s try to look past the fact that – as we had all witnessed – her son fired upon the arresting officers, she hid him in the basement of her home and pretended not to know he was there, and that as authorities uncovered later, one of the unlicensed firearms used by Ivler in his “defense” was the very same weapon that felled Renato Victor Ebarle, Jr., Ivler’s alleged victim.

Several days removed from the actual arrest, Marlene went on national television to once again make an argument in behalf of her son. Stressing that Ivler was innocent in the fatal shooting of Ebarle, Jr., she instead implicated Ivler’s British bodyguard Mark Hauser in the brutal, traffic altercation-induced killing. “I think my bodyguard helped set me up,” she said. Talk about bizarre twists and turns. Let’s see how any of the inane reality TV shows that flood our boobtubes can top that one.

As it is, while peeling off all the almost entertaining were it not too close to the heart ludicrous details of the entire drama, I’m getting one clean message from this whole Ivler brouhaha – no one has learned a thing. Well, at least none among those directly involved in the true to life soap opera. Some of us passive onlookers, on the other hand, we seem to be getting the underlying message loud and clear.

See here’s what people out on the streets are saying: good riddance. First of all, we’re sick of cowards who need to resort to using firearms to get out of stupid traffic altercations that we all make for ourselves in the first place. We all deserve the traffic mess we find ourselves in on a daily basis because we all contribute to it, anyway. The day you can honestly say that you’ve never beaten a red light, or ran through a closed intersection because it was early morning anyway, or created your own counterflow lane is the day you can consider yourself above all else who use the streets of Metro Manila. Until such time, live through it like we all do. Get pissed like the rest of us but don’t place yourself on a pedestal and don’t take it out on anybody. Frankly, it’s pathetic.

Secondly, if you must argue for your own innocence, do it convincingly. Time and again, Aguilar has argued that her son is a good and principled gentleman – harmless to the core and innocent of the crimes he has been accused of. Well, if he is as harmless and innocent as his mother is making him up to be, why did he need to fire upon the arresting officers? The innocent – those who have clean consciences – need not resort to such irreverent violence. They stand, head held high, and dare their accusers to prove their accusations. Seriously, after seeing the lengths Ivler would go to just to avoid arrest, I’m all the more convinced he’s capable of putting a bullet through a co-motorist’s head. I didn’t categorically say that I’ve judged him. But I see where his accusers are coming from. News flash: if you’re man enough to brandish firearms, then you ought to be man enough to face the freaking music when accused of a wrongdoing involving the said firearms.

Thirdly, all this… all this drama and grief over a traffic altercation – seriously?! Since when did we feel the need to prove ourselves worthy of being called modern day barbarians? The kind of road user Ivler is being accused of (Mr. Trooper comes to mind) – hot-headed, spoiled, afraid to face up to the consequences of their actions (again, if you’re innocent, stand high, don’t cower and hide) – they are the worst kind of motorists out there. They are the worst kind because they find fault in everyone else – and feel the need to punish them on their own. They are the worst kind because they never own up to their own shortcomings. How can their numbers multiply so?

The lesson to be learned, dear reader, is that out on the streets we need to shape up. Otherwise, we spiral down into a comedic drama of insane proportions. Who knows which among us will turn out to be the leading man in the next traffic-induced drama? Enough of this gun-slinging on public roads. Enough reasoning for obviously flawed practices. We want our streets clean? We need to stop pointing accusing fingers at each other. Besides, for every one accusing finger we point at the next guy, we point at least three our own way. We all need to start where it matters. We all need to start being reasonable, practical, mindful and courteous motorists ourselves.

If we don’t accept the statement above, we’d have learned nothing from all this Ivler drama. Nothing at all.

Last week’s “Vigilance in the time of Facebook” by Andy Leuterio garnered quite a number of reactions and was even picked up in some other websites. Unfortunately, only a few are actually printable. Here are a couple of them…

THE DANGER AMONGST US – Primitive uncivilized tribesmen/cavemen (who also run around in hunting packs) dressing like us but carry modern weapons instead of spears and stone-clubs.  – Incredulous

I know the place where Mr. Trooper’s photo was taken. It was at Tutuban Mall. I know it because I park there everyday. People who show or point their guns are puss*s – they can’t even rely on their own manhood and need some sort of leverage (like a gun). If he is really brave, he should fight like a man. – zeeboy