Are we there yet? Driven to tears
CEBU, Philippines - Last week, I found it hard to put my thoughts together because of what happened to the 44 brave men of the special police force. I decided to clear my mind by driving south to visit my own dear departed relatives and to fulfil a promise I made to a cousin. As emotional as that weekend was, I could not help but be driven to tears during my entire journey south.
I first shed a tear when I realized how much smoother and better the roads were down the rural south compared to its so-called metropolitan counterpart. Oh how my clunker groaned only once in the transition from cement to asphalt at a portion of Footwear City. I was pleasantly surprised at how silent my journey was. Not once did my suspension thud. I began to wonder if the public works department in this neck of the province was from an entirely different country. No way could they have come from the same office that made the piss-poor, uneven roads in the metropolis. The road surface down south was highway heaven for motorists who drive clunkers like me.
I shed another tear when I saw the many traffic violations being committed by the people of the south. My Nora! You could build a high-rise building with the amount of traffic violation fines you could collect. Of my total round-trip journey of four hours, and over a hundred two-wheeled gnats buzzing about on the road, I only saw three people on mopeds wearing helmets. Two of which were on one bike.
To make matters worse, I counted at least thirty other scooters driven by kids barely out of grade school. It was bad enough that they were violating the law by, obviously, being too young to hold a legal driver’s license, they were not wearing helmets either. And to make matters even worse, their consenting parents, uncles, or what have you, were gleefully smiling as they rode in tandem behind their unlicensed, under-aged, law-breaking pilots.
But what drove me to shed the most tears was that, despite the many, many traffic collisions that have allegedly been caused by these public utility buses, many of their pilots still drive in the same reckless, “I own the road” manner. I spotted a bus that was painted yellow, which looked a lot like its more famous counterpart, force a sports utility vehicle off the road as it recklessly and stupidly overtook another bus on a stretch of road that had double yellow lines painted on it. Fortunately, and thanks to the SUV pilot’s quick reflexes, no collision happened. I dread to think what may have happened if the SUV wasn’t able to avoid that demonic maniac behind the wheel of the bus.
I guess, no matter where you go, traffic rule enforcement is non-existent. Just like the brave 44 whose lives were lost due to the incompetence of those in the higher ups, including a special mention to the one at the very top, our traffic enforcers run around like brainless chickens because of the incompetence of the heads of their cities and towns.
I can only speculate that this could be one of the possible reasons why the new traffic czar stepped down. He probably couldn’t stand the stupidity of someone who said he would ban certain types of vehicles on a certain stretch of southern road, but would leave the implementation to a government entity with whom he has no control or jurisdiction over. Warped logic such as that would really drive a man to tears.
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