EDITORIAL - Hypocrisy is the worst enemy of the law

It is good that implementation of Republic Act 10913 or the Anti-Distracted Driving Act has been suspended. For it appears that implementation of the new law has itself gotten distracted, if not completely derailed. Originally intended to merely ban the use of cellphones and similar gadgets while driving for safety’s sake, the would-be implementers have instead gone to town adding virtually everything they think could possibly distract a driver while driving.

If this is the mindset of the would-be implementers, then we might as well ban all driving altogether because anything that is being driven on the road can be a distraction to the others who are driving. And while we are at it, why not in fact ban anything that moves because anything that moves can distract anyone who is driving. And this includes all would-be implementers themselves who stand in the middle of the street pretending to do their jobs.

What is happening is a classic example of too many cooks spoiling the broth. Why the heck can we not stick with the original flavor of the law, which was just to ban cellphones and similar gadgets? Why must anyone try to be more perfect than perfect? No law is ever as good as it should be and we can only try to live within possibilities.

The funny thing about those trying to put in everything into a cure-all is that they in fact have a very dismal record of implementing laws that are far easier to implement. They could not even apprehend jeepneys that do not turn on their headlights at night or those that cross centerlines and run against the flow of traffic, yet now they are adding more to the things they cannot implement.

What this all adds up to is showboating and grandstanding, an attempt to project an image of concern and good intention but which in reality is something that cannot be done. Not that it cannot be done because it is impossible but that it could not be done because nobody since time immemorial has shown it can be done. No one has proven himself to be imbued with the willingness to walk the talk.

Rosaries hanging from rearview mirrors a distraction? The fact of the matter is all drivers who have them are oblivious to their presence. They even forget they have them in the first place. And stickers on windshields? Wasn’t it the would-be implementers themselves who told drivers to stick registration stickers on their windshields in the first place? The worst enemy of the law, it seems, is the hypocrisy of their creators and implementers.