Holiday time

During holidays, cops also take a break.

Last Monday night at 10:30, traffic moved at snail’s pace along the southbound section of Roxas Boulevard up to the EDSA flyover, even if it was a holiday.

The reason was the usual: buses and jeepneys were lined three deep near the southern foot of the flyover, waiting forever to fill their vehicles with passengers because their day’s earnings depended on it.

They could do whatever they pleased because there was not a single traffic enforcer in sight. I am sure of this because my car was rear-ended by a white Toyota Innova (conduction sticker VL 0511), whose driver reeked of alcohol. I walked to that broad intersection under the flyover – one of the busiest junctions in Metro Manila, even on a holiday night – but could not find a single traffic enforcer from the Philippine National Police, Pasay City government or MMDA.

There was only a guy wearing the uniform of a city market employee, and another with a barangay police uniform, both of whom couldn’t find any traffic enforcer for me either. A jeepney barker offered to look for a cop but returned empty-handed. I gave up when I saw another minor vehicular accident at the junction and no traffic enforcer showed up.

The driver of the other car offered to shoulder the repair of my car so we could both be on our way quickly. After I took photos of the accident plus his driver’s license, we drove away. The license identifies him as Felicito Distrajo Acaba, 59, of B4, L14, Duke Street, Regency Townhomes in Dasmariñas, Cavite.

I thought that anyone who would provide his driver’s license and cell phone number could be trusted. But yesterday when we rang him up, he must have decided there’s a sucker born every minute and said he had no intention of having my car repaired. We could go after him for hit-and-run, he said. Then he switched off his cell phone.

If the accident had been worse, we would have been stuck there until the crack of dawn, when traffic police and enforcers of the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority and city government presumably report for duty, before we could get an accident report for insurance purposes. (Or, considering Acaba’s attitude, he probably would have driven off without waiting for a cop, for a classic hit-and-run.) MMDA officials have admitted that because of limited resources, they can’t field traffic enforcers after the evening rush hour. The enforcers report for work at daybreak.

Whether Acaba had an alcohol level above the legal limit, we would never know. How can alcohol tests be conducted when there aren’t any cops at night, when people normally get drunk?

If there were pickpockets or snatchers in that intersection, they would have easily gotten away. Where were the cops? Did they become ninja cops? Maybe they were preoccupied with going after tambays or conducting the “chilling and relentless” Oplan Double Barrel. Thousands of other cops are busy providing protection to VIPs around the clock.

What has happened to police patrols, which are particularly important at night when many criminals and drunken drivers are on the loose?

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The PNP is not as undermanned as the MMDA, but manpower increase in the police has not kept up with the country’s population growth.

Weak police presence in densely populated urban centers is bad not just for the citizenry but also for tourism. Cops are ubiquitous around the clock in the world’s most visited cities, including last year’s No. 1, Thai capital Bangkok; city-state Singapore, ranked fifth; Tokyo, sixth, and Seoul, seventh.

In Spain’s capital Madrid, the 25th most visited city last year, a top law enforcement official told me that they identify the most visited spots for saturation with cops. Residential areas have police outposts and are subjected to regular patrols.

Police presence is not enough to foil terrorist attacks such as the one that hit the Madrid train station in March 2004, killing over 190 people. But police presence plays a significant part in deterrence of ordinary crimes. It gives people a sense of personal safety (except in households subjected to tokhang). And it ensures quick response in case of untoward incidents, including vehicular accidents.

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When PNP response disappoints, the cops are called pulis patola, sleeping in the panciteria or noodle house. But I know that limited manpower is among the reasons for the inadequacy of police capability.

Because the PNP lacks manpower, local governments should step in to augment traffic enforcement teams. I am familiar with the situation only in the western part of Metro Manila. Makati has traffic enforcers even at night. So does the city of Manila, where many areas are jammed at night with trucks doing business at the port. Las Piñas is notable for the presence of uniformed local traffic enforcers on its main roads even until midnight on rainy days, weekends and holidays.

As for Pasay City, I have always considered that spot where I had the vehicular accident, which borders Parañaque, as an example of failure of governance. It competes with certain spots along EDSA as Exhibit A for the absence of discipline among public utility buses, jeepneys and taxis, with enforcement of traffic rules almost non-existent.

The weak city governance is aggravated by cops on holiday.