Education, not humiliation, for drunk drivers

RC Rodriguez, 28, is one lucky guy.

He has figured in more than one road crash while driving under the influence of liquor and he is still alive.

Once, after imbibing two bottles of one-liter beer, he was driving at 100 kilometer per hour when his tire blew up and his car hit a post. He survived without any serious physical damage.

Like many drunk drivers, Rodriguez believes it was not his driving that caused him to crash. He says there were times when it was a mechanical error. Or there were times when a spur of the moment decision triggered by something

made him feel he wanted to hit a car.

“Yes, I have been under the intoxicated. I knew I could drive,” he insists, adding that any dif an accident.”

In a news conference after the elections, Duterte warned: “If I caught you [driving drunk], I would strip you naked on the highway. I would call the media.”

“Do not drink and drive. Once you do that, you’ll know that you might kill a person,” he said.

Duterte said he will also urge Congress to pass a law preventing drunk drivers from seeking probation instead of serving prison time.

The light punishment for drunk driving has been cited as a reason why people like Rodriguez refuse to reform.

Rodriguez was once caught driving drunk when his headlights were “blind.” But he insisted that he was not intoxicated, he simply did not notice the violation.

and he was allowed to drive on without any ticket.

The Philippines has an AntiDrunk and Drugged Driving Act Section 12 enumerates the penalties for drivers found to have been driving a motor vehicle while similar substances.

Rodriguez could have been

The penalty goes higher if the offending motorist causes physical injuries ( from P100,000 to P200,000) or even homicide with imprisonment and revocation of license to drive.

Of those who died from road - were passengers.

Details of drunk drivers’ involvement in the crashes are not - Development Authority- Global GRSP), said drunk driving is likely one of the factors.

“If you will analyze, the number of pedestrians killed is higher compared to the drivers and passengers so most likely there is an aspect of drunk driving here,” Nazarrea said.

She admits that there is a need for the strict implementation of the law and clarification of the allowable blood alcohol content ( BAC).

For non- professional drivers, BAC should not exceed 0.05 percent. Professional drivers and drivers of public utility vehicles, however, must have no trace for alcohol at all – anything higher than 0 percent is subject to penalty.

Rodriguez, who claims to have a high tolerance of alcohol, laments the standard limit. “It’s up to the person to know if he can drive or not,” he argues.

In its Global Status Report on Road Safety 2015, the World Health Organization (WHO) gave a dismal one out of 10 rating in the enforcement of anti-drunk driving law in the Philippines.

Nazarrea admits that the enforcers’ capability to catch drunk drivers is limited.

“The apprehension can only be And if there’s a suspicion [that the alcohol], that’s the only time the if there was an indication that the driver was drunk,” she explains.

Nazarrea declined to comment of the President’s warning to strip drunk drivers but she expects many people will oppose shaming offenders.

Rodriguez agrees there is no need to humiliate his kind. The government, he stressed, should intensify an education campaign on the law.

“Not all drunk drivers are impaired,” he says.

The Commission on Human Rights (CHR) urges Duterte to stick to the law and not degrade people.

“We don’t condone those kinds of punishment to violators of the law,” says Banuar CHR’s International Obligations enough penalties for drunk drivers. Humiliating people is not a way to go about it.”

have no physical contact with violators and are not allowed to ask drivers to alight from their vehicles while the apprehension is taking place.