Rethink "no wang-wang" policy

I don’t know whether to be happy or angry about the Ricardo Pascua incident. His story tends to go in opposite directions that the only way something positive may be derived from its telling is to learn the only two possible lessons from it.

 Pascua is a Senior Police Officer 2 assigned in Quezon City. He recently got plucked from relative obscurity when the government fired him from service for — hold your breath — blocking the convoy of President Aquino.

 Now why would a police officer, or anyone for that matter, block a VIP convoy, much less that of the president, unless he did not know it was a VIP convoy? To me, it was just incidental that Pascua was a police officer. It could have happened to you and me.

 From what we know of the incident, and what we know from actual fact, President Aquino does not allow the use of sirens for his convoys. In other words, if you are riding ahead of that convoy, there would be no way of knowing if it is already coming right at you from behind.

 As the story goes, it was not until Aquino’s presidential escorts came abreast of Pascua and tried to shoo him off to the side that Pascua realized a VIP convoy was trying to go through the traffic.

 This was where, to me, Pascua committed his first mistake — he refused to yield. Without knowing he was blocking the president, what occurred to the small mind of Pascua was that he was a cop, and the effrontery and gall of these people in trying to ride him off the road.

 Of course the presidential escorts do not wear their badges on their foreheads. So the poor s.o.b. even allegedly accosted some of them to tell them who he was and how dare they demean SPO2 Ricardo Pascua of the QCPD.

 It was not until the presidential escorts told Pascua who they were and whose life Pascua was trying to complicate that the arrogant cop realized how deep in trouble he was. Reports said he apologized profusely. He could have simply used a little courtesy.

 As things stand, the government threw the entire kitchen sink at Pascua. Not only was he fired, he may be charged with driving without a license, using a private vehicle with an illegal siren and improperly installed license plates.

 And digging up his records, Pascua was discovered to have been dismissed previously but won a reprieve on appeal. By all indications, Pascua is not the type of police officer who would inspire public admiration and confidence.

 The first lesson from this incident, therefore, is for police officers to avoid displays of arrogance and to serve as public examples of proper adherence to traffic rules and basic road courtesies. It makes better sense to give way than to insist on that one small space on the road.

 The bigger lesson, however, is reserved for President Aquino himself, and to whom this question is urgently addressed: What if SPO2 Pascua was not just an arrogant cop but someone else with far more sinister designs in mind?

 The message of Aquino’s “no wang-wang” policy is not lost on the Filipino people. But while his effort to show humility is admirable I think he misunderstands its attributes. To prove humility, Aquino needs something more substantial and realistic than just using no “wang-wang.”

 The “wang-wang” for a presidential convoy is there for a very important reason. Never was it the intention of the presidential “wang-wang” to show what great privileges a president can have on the road. It is there to protect the president and expedite presidential functions.

The president cannot be late for anything because it is the nation that gets late when a president is. Hence, the need to clear his path on the road. And many things can happen if he gets stuck in traffic. Good it was just Pascua this time. But Aquino cannot second-guess fate.