Mad Max, Manila version

The decrepit owner type jeepney in the middle of the muddy lot looked like it was going to fall apart.

So when the burly man with the bulging tummy asked me to get in and drive it, I was dumbfounded.

The jeep must have been plucked out of the nearest junk shop just for the day’s test. Its fancy blue lace curtain seemed thick with dust. I didn’t even find a seat belt.

But on that scorching day decades ago at the Land Transportation Office in Quezon City, I was determined to get a driver’s license. I had been warned. My brothers before me said there would be a practical test. But I didn’t expect the vehicle to be something like in a Mad Max movie. That jeepney fit perfectly in that post-Apocalyptic desert wasteland filled with insane road machines.

I didn’t take formal driving lessons. My father, the best driver I know, taught me how to drive. And while driving schools declare you a driver in as short as five days, I had to count months before I could go out into the wild.

I practiced around the maze-like area where we live. I learned how to drive on a 1979 two-door Celeste with no hand brake and a really deep clutch. At one point, the car didn’t even have a rearview mirror.

In short, I learned to drive under tough conditions.

Still, the jeepney at the LTO looked so bad I didn’t think I would be able to move it even by an inch.

But just like in the Mad Max films, the vehicle moved the way it should.  The burly man told me to move it a few meters and back. I managed and I got my license.

Many years later, I enrolled the family helper in a driving school because she badly needed a government ID. After just five days, she was done with the lessons. She took a written exam and she got her license. She didn’t have to take a practical test.

This is how sorry our licensing process is.

In the United States, you have to at least drive along a street and not just move forward as I was told. You have to do parallel parking and drive around a curb. It’s even tougher in Europe. You have to do three maneuvers, roundabouts and parallel parking.

I’ve been thinking about this lately because traffic is getting worse.

I think that if the LTO would have a stricter licensing process – at par with global practices – then the traffic situation may improve even just a bit.

The LTO must also regulate driving schools. How can they teach something for just a few hours for five days? A real overhaul in the process would be great. Even Transportation Secretary Arthur Tugade got a license even if he doesn’t know how to drive. The Transportation department later explained it was just for demo purposes after Philippine Star columnist Boo Chanco pointed out that the good secretary does not drive.

If the LTO can improve the process, I am sure it would weed out the bad drivers and this can improve the traffic situation.

As it is now, there are more people who don’t follow traffic rules than those who do. They break every rule possible just to be ahead of others. It is every man for himself in this land of mayhem – just like Mad Max’s not-too-distant dystopian future.

People should realize that a license is a privilege; it is not a right. At the very least, the licensees must be worthy of this privilege. And the LTO must make sure of that.

From roads to the airport

When I think about the chaos on our roads, the worsening congestion at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) also comes to mind.

So when I heard that seven conglomerates – the MVP Group, Lucio Tan Group, Ayalas, Gotianuns, Gokongweis, Aboitizes and tycoon Andrew Tan – are planning to band together to vie for the P76 billion upgrade of NAIA, I told a source in one of the conglomerates that I really hope it would happen.

Going through NAIA after all is like running the gauntlet. The chaos starts long before you can even put your bag in the scanner. It starts in the crowded parking lots and in snaking lines at the entrance of the terminals.

David versus Goliath

But whether or not the super consortium will succeed is still anybody’s guess. As early as now, the dapper boys of construction conglomerate and Cebu airport operator Megawide are thinking of going against the Goliaths and vie for NAIA as well.

“We’re interested. It’s for the Filipino people,” says GMR-Megawide Cebu Airport Corp. (GMCAC) president Louie Ferrer.

Will they win against a group of tycoons? They did it in Cebu. But if they want additional guarantee, they can also get President Duterte’s favorite tycoon to join them. And if that happens, the super consortium may not be so super after all.

Whoever wins, I’m keeping my fingers crossed NAIA would finally get the upgrade that’s long overdue.

Iris Gonzales’ e-mail address is [email protected].