Catch 22

Last Wednesday night, I invited Atty. Yves Gonzalez, Director and OIC of the Traffic Discipline Office of the MMDA, to a live television webcast over nmfnetwork.tv to get some straight answers to some very pressing questions and came away with the bittersweet conclusion that the bulk of our traffic problems will never be solved by his agency, infrastructure or added enforcement. Most of it comes down to simply changing our way of thinking.

Because let’s be honest here, adding roadways and additional enforcers without changing our attitudes, is like taking a bath and putting on dirty clothes; so until our mindset changes, you could put Chuck Norris in charge of the MMDA for all we care and still be in the mess were in now.

Take the situation with the jeepneys, pedicabs and sidewalk vendors. As this was an interactive live broadcast, one viewer came down hard on Atty. Yves, demanding that until the MMDA can enforce this simple and basic rule of obstruction, how on earth can he expect the public to respect his agency. A fair point. But as it turns out, in many of the illegal terminals mentioned, the serial offenders are working under a contradicting permit from the barangay captain, mayor or other local government official.

So now the MMDA takes the heat for a problem that they have no jurisdiction over. Because despite being appointed by the office of the president, Atty. Yves reminds us that the MMDA can only override a local official’s permit on national roads. He admits of course that there are still areas where his enforcers are at fault, and when left unsupervised, tend to turn a blind eye to public buses, jeeps, tricycles and pedicabs? But how do you restore their faith and pride in the uniform when the same officers are undermined, threatened or abused when they get strict?

The same goes for the armored vans. I’ve been dying to get some clarification on this for some time, and Atty. Yves confirmed very candidly that, just like motorcycles and any other motorized vehicle on the road, they are given no concessions whatsoever. Works in theory, but in reality, when six or seven tons of armored metal comes barreling through a red light towards an unarmed, underpaid enforcer, instinct and common sense dictate that they just get the hell out of the way. And even in cases where they have broken down in a busy road blocking traffic and an MMDA tow truck arrives, the guards simply hold their weapons and say, “We’re loaded.”

It doesn’t help that many of these security agencies and bus companies are owned by people far more powerful than the agencies that are trying to apprehend them.  But the greater concern is since we are all constantly exposed to it, this appalling attitude spreads like fungus, and soon you have private motorists flexing their muscle and disrespecting the authorities simply because almost everyone on the road feels a sense of entitlement. And yet we all seem surprised and appalled when the whole ugly scene ends up on YouTube.

The fact is that this is happening everyday. And yet as disgusted as we all are with the behavior of people like the Carabuena brothers, in reality, almost every single one of us feels exempt precisely because we know there’s someone worse out there. This may sound like a classic Mexican standoff, but if the Office of the President would like to send a strong message, they could start by standing up to these bullies in security agencies, bus companies and vote-hungry local government officials who issue illegal permits, because the only way to truly solve the problem is by having the rules apply consistently to everyone, and everyone to consistently respect the rules. No exceptions.

E-mail [email protected].