Budget chief’s car causes traffic snarl

She must have been in the wrong place at the wrong time.

A stupid move by her chauffeur got Budget Secretary Emilia Boncodin into an embarrassing situation of being caught in a traffic snarl created by her official service car.

Boncodin could only watch in utter disgust when her driver broke a traffic rule and made a U-turn at a no U-turn zone in the vicinity of the Nayong Pilipino in Pasay City, hitting in the process a private car picking up speed on the innermost lane.

This reporter who happened to pass by the scene extricated the secretary out of the mess by offering her a lift, leaving behind her driver to reason out with traffic officers and the owner of the 1987 model red Lancer car he bumped.

"It was really the fault of my driver," she said on the way to her office on J. P. Laurel street near Malacañang.

She confided that it was just not her style to travel around with backup cars and wailing sirens to ease her way through traffic in the metropolis.

Boncodin was on her way back to the Palace after addressing the anniversary rites of the Aviation Security Command in Pasay City when the accident occurred.

As her driver stepped out to check the damage, the horror-stricken secretary also got off as horns blared with traffic beginning to build up.

Despite the security plate on her Toyota Camry car bearing the No. 6 for Cabinet members, hardly anybody among the motorists, traffic officers and bystanders recognized the budget chief.

Boncodin was supposed to join President Arroyo in her regional development council meeting in Mindanao over the past two days.

She sent instead one of her deputies, Undersecretary Mario Relampagos, to represent her in the Mindanao meetings because she was needed in Manila for the final touches on the proposed P798 billion budget for next year.

The budget measure is due for submission by the President to Congress after her State of the Nation Address on July 22.