Drivers can do away with excessive fines

I read in The Ear last Monday that a priest was seen with two sexy girls in a coffeeshop one early morning. So what's wrong? Sexy girls should not be the monopoly of mediamen. Hehe!

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I watched boxing on tv last weekend. I was amused by the behavior of Indon Muhammad Rachman. After losing to Cebu's Milan Melindo, he kept going to where the victor was and kept hugging him. At one point, he even lifted Melindo while giving him a tight hug. Rachman looked like he was happy he lost.

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At the rate I'm getting all these good words from my highly esteemed colleagues here in TF, by golly, I'm tempted to ask Mike Velarde to be his running mate. Amen?

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The jeepney drivers are up in arms against what they call "excessive fines." There's one effective way to evade these fines: Obey traffic rules. Have you ever heard of a motor vehicle driver who got fined because he obeyed traffic rules?

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You know why jeepney drivers have the gumption -- or, yes, the boldness -- to strike anytime they wish? It's because not one of them or an operator has gotten it in the neck.

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Everytime there's a transport strike, the papers report that the mayor has gotten mad, very mad, and has moved to have the jeepney operators’ franchise revoked. But has there ever been a franchise that has been revoked? Many drivers must have died laughing.

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By the way, three paragraphs up I said the jeepney drivers are up in arms against excessive fines. Some jeepney strikes ago, I also used "up in arms" about the striking drivers' protest action. You know that? One driver came to my office and confronted me. I got scared.

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 The driver said during that strike they did not have arms. They only appealed to the non-striking drivers to join common cause with them. "Wa gyud mi armas, Sir," he said. I explained. And he said: "Klaroha na ha."

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To Prof. Cherry Piquero-Ballescas: Thank you for the kind words you wrote about me. I read your column over and over ... To feel good and to be reassured that they weren't wrong in giving me the Perlas Award. Hehe!

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A retired cop in Manila is saying that one way of putting pickpockets out of business is for men and women to wear pocketless pants or trousers. Well, there's such a thing as career shift. And the pickpockets could always shift to snatching.

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