EDITORIAL- Another good measure headed for failure

A bill seeking to ban the use of cellphones and similar gadgets while driving has passed Congress and is now just awaiting the signature of President Aquino to become law. Like the law making it mandatory for motorcycle riders to wear helmets, this new measure is a big leap forward in trying to ensure the safety of both the riding public and innocent bystanders.

And just like the law on helments, the new measure is destined to become just another big disappointment. And this brings up the perplexing question about laws in this country and why most of them, good or bad, almost always end up being honored more in the breach. It is not that there is a dearth of laws to address specific areas of concern. It is just that once enacted, they all just seem to quickly disappear.

Look at the helmet law. Its implementation is never sustained. Instead, there are periodic episodes of strictness. It would not come as a surprise if, with the opening of classes today, there will be a well-publicized aggressive implementation of the helmet law. But trust from experience that as soon as public attention moves to other things, along with it goes the helmet law implementation.

In fact, on the matter of motorcycle-riding, there was a law banning the carriage of small children even if they wear helmets. The law was dutifully passed but it apparently crashed on takeoff. For what appears, on hindsight, to be clearly political reasons, the law against small children on motorcycles was ordered frozen even before it can actually be enforced.

The talk was that, given the extremely large number of people who take their children to school on motorcycles, it would be political suicide for an administration that was at the time struggling for ways and means to keep its hold on power to come up with such a hugely unpopular piece of legislation. The safety of motorcycle riders, especially very small children, will have to be found somewhere else. But never at the expense of political leverage.

And so, here we are again awaiting the signature of the president in order to make a great piece of legislation into a law. And as it may as well be one of the great official acts that President Aquino can do before he bows out of office at the end of June, the likelihood is that he will indeed sign the measure into law. And it will thus become an offense to use cellphones and other gadgets while driving.

But just like many of its predecessors, the proof of the pudding will still be in the eating. So the big question that will be up in the air will be - how effectively will the new measure be implemented if President Aquino does sign it into law? Your guess is, of course, as good as ours. But if we go by experience, the measure will again be headed into the dustbin of broken dreams.