We still lack discipline with our motorists!
Since I'm doing this column before noontime, I can't report to our readers whether the nationwide transport strike was a huge success or not. For sure the decision by the DepEd to suspend classes has surely helped mitigate the impact of the transport strike led by Pinagkaisang Samahan ng mga Tsuper at Operators Nationwide (PISTON), the Stop and Go Coalition, the No to Jeepney Phase Out Coalition. I'm sure that the contingency plans put in place by the LTFRB to help those passengers who want to go home after office hours have also helped alle-viate the situation.
The Filipino people have seen numerous transport strikes, many of them a success, while a lot have been dismal failures when the local governments go out of their way to address the situation. I recall those days when Taiwan gave Cebu City those Kaohsiung Buses, which Mayor Tomas Osmeña used effectively to transport stranded commuters back to their homes. The striking transport groups were caught flatfooted and the transport strike aimed to paralyze economic activity fizzled out. At this point, I have no idea what the City of Cebu has done to prepare for yesterday's transport strike. I'm sure you will be able to read those reports in the frontpage news of this newspaper.
Meanwhile, after many decades of transport strikes and changes in the leadership of the National Government, one thing seem to remain unchanged… that the LTFRB, regardless of who is the president, hasn't done much to discipline our erring drivers, both from the public transportation and non-professional drivers. Yes, after many decades the national government has not addressed the issue of discipline with our motorists.
Since we're talking about professional drivers, I recall that the pet peeve of my good friend, John Domingo of the US Consulate was jeepneys that do not turn on their headlights at night. This was told to me years ago by Mr. Domingo and the situation has remained the same and unchanged. You can still see those jeepneys on our streets without any headlights on, posing a grave danger to other motorists and pedestrians. What has LTFRB done to stop this dangerous situation? Nothing!
Still on erring jeepneys, we know that the LTFRB franchise requires jeepneys to have a garage; otherwise their permits to operate will be terminated. But I dare you to go around our city streets especially at night and you will see a lot of jeepneys parked alongside the roads because the owners or operators do not have any garage, or they put a fictitious garage in their licenses. What has the LTFRB done about this situation? Nothing! How can we discipline these jeepney operators when the LTFRB presents to the Filipino people their best excuse; that they do not have enough personnel to apprehend those erring jeepney operators/ drivers?
As far as local enforcement of national or local motoring laws are con-cerned, we don't have to look far. Just look at the way how the habal-habal drivers defy our traffic authorities, riding their motorcycles sans any helmets, while overloading their motorcycles with passengers. Again, this is clearly a problem of enforcement and the further you go away from Metro Cebu; the situation gets worse where one would think that we have no national laws governing the use of helmets for motorcycle riders.
So clearly the problem of the land transportation in this country is a serious lack of discipline by motorists, aggravated by the fact that the national government authorities, the LTFRB or the Land Transportation Office or the local government traffic enforcement offices cannot discipline those who are given the privilege to use our public roads.
When Mayor Rodrigo "Digong" Duterte was elected president, it was hoped that he would finally bring the needed change to the transport industry, especially with regards disciplining our motorists. I have written numerous columns that it is high time for the Philippines to adopt the "merit/demerit" system that western nations have put in place as a means to enforce discipline on our motorists. I don't have to repeat my proposal here because I already wrote about this so many times before. What we need to know is what is the LTFRB or LTO doing that is an out-of-the-box solution to our transport woes, which keep repeating all year round?