Inconsistency

Driving around the streets of Metro Manila can be quite a pain – especially if you’re a stickler for organized travel. We all know the drill. 21st century Metro Manila is put together like 18th century rural Europe. There are fiefdoms galore and in each not-so-little republic the rules vary – mostly according to what their ruler/overlord sees fit. This holds true most especially for traffic rules and regulations. Which is why driving around Metro Manila can be horribly tricky – and downright treacherous.

Just the other week, I had to make my way to a venue in Quezon City – specifically in the Scout Area where there are event venues galore. I decided that the fastest way to get to the venue at around the time I was driving was through EDSA (I live in Pasig so that would mean I’d be driving along the north-bound lane). So I calmly drove the length of what is sometimes the living embodiment of Dante’s Inferno until I reached the flyover that traverses the length of what was once the Quezon Avenue intersection. Under said flyover, one can make a u-turn and be on his quick, painless way to wherever in the Scout Area. So that’s exactly what I did. And that’s when things turned sour for me.

There are two separate ways to get to Quezon Avenue after the said flyover – one, a hard right immediately after the flyover and the other, a more manageable right a few meters after. I calmly took the latter as I figured that Public Utility Vehicles are necessarily allowed only on the rightmost side of our roads, the Philippines having left hand drive vehicles as the norm. Stupid me. It turns out there was a sign right smack in the middle of both rights that indicated that private vehicles ought to take the first right. Hence, I was apprehended. I pleaded my case to the apprehending officer. I even tried to explain how international traffic laws dictate that Public Utility Vehicles are duty bound to load and unload passengers on the side of the road nearest to the sidewalks. “Hindi po ganyan dito (We don’t do things that way here),” was his automatic reply. Try arguing with logic like that!

At the end of the day, I exasperatedly gave up my license and asked for a traffic violation ticket. I did, after all, miss out on that all-important sign that told me what I should have done – specifically in that particular area of Quezon City. The guy must’ve felt my frustration and let me go with a warning (I was very apologetic and kind…). Still, I had already found my fodder for this week’s column.

My Quezon City u-turn experience is not an isolated one. We’ve all probably gone through a similar experience at one point in time or another. As I had mentioned earlier, the traffic rules in the cities that make up Metro Manila vary. The ever-so-popular Republic of Makati comes to mind. In Makati, not even the supposedly all-encompassing power of the Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA) holds sway. The MMDA was, of course, put together in order to unify traffic rules and regulations as well as to centralize apprehension and license procurement procedures arising from them. With Makati forever dissenting on popular MMDA opinion, many are often caught in the said republic even in the knowledge that they abide by what would have been “all-encompassing” MMDA laws. Which makes one wonder… If all it takes is one dissenting city to render the MMDA’s existence moot, why is there still an MMDA?

Unification and consistency was the MMDA’s ultimate goal. Despite all that the institution has done – both helpful and harmful to the cause of reducing if not eliminating traffic – isn’t its ultimate goal unattainable with the current local government set-up that we have?

Now, despite obvious appearances, I’m not necessary aiming for the disbandment of the MMDA as a governing agency. In fact, I am all for unified traffic rules and laws. What I would like to see is more cooperation and less dissention from the ranks of the local government units. While it may be true that there are some rules that work better for some than for others, such is the bitter pill that we all must swallow. We need to agree on basic rules and regulations that work for the benefit of the greater majority – not necessarily the benefit of each and every one. That’s just fact. And at the end of the day, we need a single implementing agency to assure consistency of implementation. So no, I don’t want the MMDA abolished. I want us to get our act together – like tsunami torn Japan, which, despite all the chaos, still ascribes to an enviable sense of structure that will no doubt help them get back on their feet in record time.

If we had even an iota of the sense of cooperation that some of our Asian neighbors have, we could have gone way past discussing about dissention amongst little republics within our main urban enclave and moved on to more pressing motoring related concerns – like helping save mother nature, perhaps. As it is, however, we’ll have to live with the constant bickering, finger pointing and self-serving tendencies that we have grown accustomed to from our so called leaders. If you really think about it, we waste so much effort on such trivial matters. And while all this is happening on a daily basis, we’re all left wondering what kind of traffic law we’ll violate next – simply because our rules and laws have no consistency at all. Chaos, we bow to thy great and all-encompassing power. Sigh…