Feeling like a criminal

I almost choked on my midnight snack when I watched the late night news on television last Aug. 26. There was Vandolph – with his two hands clasped like he was in prayer – pleading to his arresting officers to let him off the hook after he was apprehended for 1) Violating the "No Plate, No Travel Policy" and 2) Driving without a license.

Immediately, I was able to relate to Vandolph’s nightmarish experience (the least serious of his vehicular woes – having been involved previously in really bad road mishaps, one of which even resulted in the death of his girlfriend).

Exactly the night before, I was in the same situation. I remember it was around past 8 p.m. and I was on my way to Megamall to do some errands. Turning right on EDSA from Annapolis in Greenhills, I immediately noticed the heavy traffic. I thought it was strange to have a traffic build-up because it was already past the rush hour and it wasn’t even raining that time. And no, there was no scheduled midnight madness sale in either Robinsons or Megamall.

I checked the date and it was Aug. 25 – six days away from payday. The only people drawing their salaries that day were talents and employees of ABS-CBN and GMA 7 (it’s the 10th and 25th for us in television) and I figured that even if all of us from TV went to Megamall at the same time to squander our hard-earned money, we wouldn’t be creating such chaos on EDSA.

As I inched my way forward – but ever so slowly – I noticed that vehicles were hardly moving in those lanes that went up the Robinsons flyover and the problem was clearly in Ortigas Ave. – fronting the Meralco Building. Maybe there was a rally against power rates and I thought I should be there – being one of the countless dissatisfied customers of this electric company.

At one point, I ticked off in my head the feast days of all the saints in the Roman Catholic calendar. Maybe there was a fiesta somewhere in Rosario, Pasig and people were probably flocking there for free chow and that was probably the reason for this monstrous traffic. So many other thoughts crossed my mind while I stewed behind the wheel, but I’m only sharing those two with you because the rest are either dirty or unprintable.

When I finally got to the other end of the Robinsons flyover, I finally discovered why there was such a huge traffic jam on this supposedly regular night. Posted on the road were several uniformed men and they were stopping vehicles without plates.

I turned pale for a while when I saw these men in uniform because the week before, I had gotten myself a new vehicle to replace a five-year-old car. (You know how it is with cars – the problems start to come out at age five.) Also, I was racing against time because of the E-VAT. And so, even if I was financially unprepared, I just closed my eyes and got myself a new car, but without the plate yet, of course, since it had to come from the LTO.

So there I was that evening driving my new vehicle – minus the plate – and a traffic enforcer asked me to pull over, which I did, obediently, although I was cursing under my breath because I only had a little time left to do my errands (no thanks to the traffic caused by this crackdown). And now I had to be stalled again. Immediately I looked for the papers from the car company, which assured me I could take the car out and not have any problem with the law enforcers.

When that man in uniform approached my vehicle, I quickly rolled down my window and showed him the papers that would attest to the fact that I was still within the grace period – and that he should just let me go since I wasn’t breaking any law. In my mind, they should be arresting the LTO people instead for their inability to release car plates fast enough.

The traffic enforcer, unfortunately, didn’t believe that I was still within the grace period – even if it was there in black and white. He just looked at me and asked me to talk to his supervisor instead – adding even: "Para walang masabi ang iba na kinikilingan namin kayo porque’t taga-media kayo."

Well, I have to say I was impressed because here was a guy who really meant business. On the other hand, I was also beginning to wonder: Was it his desire to really enforce the law (bravo for him then) or was it because he didn’t know how to enforce it? After all, he went over my papers, which clearly stated that I shouldn’t have any problem with my new car – at least not yet.

All of a sudden, I remembered this incident on TV many years ago when the odd-even scheme was implemented in our roads. An MMDA enforcer was asked by a TV reporter to recite the odd numbers first and, later, the even numbers. It turned out that the MMDA guy didn’t know his arithmetic and got his odd and even numbers mixed up.

When I finally found the supervisor (it was a little bit of a long walk that I did), he took one look at my papers and told me I didn’t have any problem. But we exchanged pleasantries for a while – with him and his men. For the people passing by, however, it must have looked like I was being arrested and was set to be taken away and locked up in jail.

I swear there was this busload of people bound for Cainta and by the look on their faces they were wondering why I was surrounded by cops. When one of them waved at me, I quickly waved back and took that as an opportunity to show them I wasn’t in handcuffs.

After saying goodbye to the uniformed men, I quickly hopped to the car and rushed off to Megamall. Too bad, most of the shops I was scheduled to visit were already closing by then and it was one trip wasted.

The next day, you bet I was on the phone with my car dealer following up my plate, which I now have.

Looking back, I now realize that I shouldn’t be annoyed for having been subjected through all that trouble. The law enforcers, after all, were just doing their job. And this I must say: They were all very polite and courteous – even at one point when I was already showing my irritation.

My only hope is that this won’t be another ningas cogon.

And now, let me see them run after the smoke-belchers. I promise to help them with this campaign.