Presidential spokesman exposes bad policemen - Roses And Thorns byAlejandro R. Roces

It took a street-wise person like Presidential Spokesman Fernando Barican to observe that traffic lights in busy intersections like Paseo de Roxas and Makati Avenue are being tampered with, not to relieve a bad traffic situation, but to confuse the motorist into unwittingly breaking the law thus giving crooked policemen the opportunity of stopping motorists who have to pay the policeman to avoid arrest.

Barican also noted in such busy intersections, policemen are never on sight directing traffic. They are in hiding on the sides to prey on the motorist who got confused by the changing lights. Traffic policemen are paid to direct and decongest traffic. To fulfill their tasks, they have to be in the forefront. Instead, they hide so they can mulct traffic violators. Barican's charge is very serious. If policemen are tampering with the traffic lights, not to ease the traffic flow, but to confuse the motorists, then there is no hope for traffic improvement unless we first clean our police force of its crooked elements.

We have long noted that policemen in charge of units that tow cars who park in no-parking streets also use the same procedure. If they see a motorist who is about to park in a prohibited zone, they do not tell him that he will be arrested if he parks. They remain in hiding until he parks, wait for him to leave his car and then tow his car away. In this instance, however, there usually are signs indicating that they are no-parking streets. The signs denoting no-parking are simply a canceled letter "P."

Barican accosted two policemen who he believed were mulcting a motorist in the shady side of the street. He jotted the names exhibited in their nameplates but did not bother to get their first names. What we would like to know is how the police authorities followed up on the matter.

We have personally observed what Presidential Spokesman Barican saw for himself last Tuesday. Whenever there is a bad traffic congestion in a main traffic thoroughfare, there is no policeman around. But there are policemen preying on the motorists that may have gone astray to avoid the traffic jam. The same thing can be said for smoke-belching vehicles. How can one drive a smoke-belching car, bus or jeepney in Metro Manila without being detected? We suggest that the authorities publish a daily report as to the number of drivers arrested daily for driving smoke-belching vehicles.

The traffic problem is reaching a critical stage, specially in Metro Manila. We cannot widen our streets in the metropolis. If anything, they are getting narrower. Classic examples are Rizal and Taft Avenues in Manila and EDSA itself. The three were caused by the construction of the Light Rail Transit. But the number of vehicles are increasing every year. We have allowed residential subdivisions to be converted to commercial zones. We have a building code but it is not enforced. The building code says that buildings of certain height can only be erected if the width of the streets that surround it also follows certain provisions. This, too, is not rigidly enforced.

We don't need more laws. All we have to do is enforce the existing ones.