Jerry's

Presidential Spokesperson Jerry Barican's encounter with those "kotong" traffic enforcers at the intersection of Paseo de Roxas and Makati Avenue reminds me that I have my own story to tell about that same section in the fair City of Makati.

Let's clarify, first of all, that as far as we know, those were not organic Philippine National Police personnel that Jerry chewed out. They were members of the Makati Public Safety Assistance group, more popularly or unpopularly, known as MAPSA. These are the intrepid men and women you see clad in yellow and black uniforms, manning the intersections and roaming the side streets of the city, eyes peeled for erring, undisciplined or illegally parked motorists.

Well, it turns out, based on Jerry's experience, that some of these guys and dolls have their eyes peeled for something else, like the cash that motorists are persuaded to peel from their slim billfolds (times are hard, you know) to avoid a traffic citation or some much greater inconvenience, like being hauled off to the nearest dingy MAPSA office. As Jerry relates it, the sequence of the traffic lights at that intersection of Paseo de Roxas and Makati Avenue have only recently been changed, so that the left-turn signal goes on first before the green light which indicates you may go straight ahead. The green light, for as long as people can remember, used to go on ahead of the left-turn signal. Now, you'd probably expect this kind of trap if you were travelling somewhere like redneck country in the American Deep South. But in the heart of Makati? Apparently so, because Jerry says he witnessed a blatant act of mulcting, spiced with spirited negotiations on the appropriate "fee", conducted by MAPSA stalwarts identified only as "Garcia" and "Castrolio."

I agree with Jerry that something fishy's going on, at least in that intersection, most probably in others too. Two Fridays ago, while headed for a 2 p.m. appointment at an office building on Ayala Ave., my car turned right from Buendia (Sen. Gil J. Puyat) Ave. onto Makati Ave. At the intersection of Paseo de Roxas, I stopped on the lane that was designated for cars going straight ahead. In front of me was a taxicab. The traffic light flashed green first. (This was obviously before they switched the sequence around.) But the taxi in front wouldn't budge. My driver honked his horn. So did all the others behind us who wanted to move straight ahead. The taxi driver couldn't care less. My car, and several others behind me, were forced to swerve right to avoid the nincompoop ahead of us, risking collision with the cars moving quickly ahead on the green light. The taxi driver was, naturally, the recipient of numerous dirty finger gestures and peppery cuss words from irate motorists. If sobriety and fear of greater inconvenience, possibly even attempted homicide suits, had not intervened, the louse would have been lynched. But do you think he even cared? Nah! He had a blank, somewhat insane, expression. He could, for all intents and purposes, been a new recruit into the undead.

The traffic enforcer standing right in the middle of the intersection did nothing, pretended to see nothing and to hear nothing. So the passing motorists began to curse him! When I passed him, lowering my window to utter a few of my own patented pleasantries, I heard him muttering things to the effect that he couldn't do anything, that some taxi drivers were really ignorant or hardheaded, and that other motorists who were nit-picky about the road rules were the scum of the earth.

Now, you see, Jerry's and my experiences are related. The MAPSA enforcers can't control undisciplined motorists? Or won't! Is there something about taxi drivers that entitles them to such privileges as blocking traffic while staying on the wrong lane? Was the traffic enforcer waiting for the taxi driver to make that left turn from the wrong lane, and then have his comrade collar the culprit and negotiate the ransom for his impudence? There was one other enforcer waiting on Paseo de Roxas. And I really doubt this was an isolated instance.

Maybe these traffic enforcers of MAPSA were just incompetent, their spiffy uniforms notwithstanding, which is why it often takes forever to negotiate, say, from Buendia to Pasay Road? Or perhaps, the one in the intersection was named Garcia, and the one waiting at the corner was Castrolio. Must be a monopoly in that intersection. Something for the gracious Mayor of Makati, Dra. Elenita Binay, to think about.