That’s what you’re in for Sir

Last week, I mentioned I will be talking about a very sensitive topic.  I consider the topic to be sensitive because I will be talking about your relative.  Yes, you heard me right.  Being Filipino, we have this knack for claiming affinity with a person to the nth degree.  Somewhere out there is a traffic enforcer who is the child of your dad’s cousin’s sister in-law’s half-brother’s wife’s nephew’s playmate’s classmate’s yaya’s hometown neighbour manicurist.  So if in some way you feel I offended your relative, I apologize in advance.

Now to the topic at hand.  Have you ever been behind the wheel of your vehicle and witnessed some vehicle turn left into a No Left Turn road?  How many times have you ever been at the front of the queue at an intersection waiting for the light when counter-flowing mopeds snake their way into the front, crowding the pedestrian lane and take forever to take off when the light turns green?  How many times have you had to hit the brakes hard because a vehicle suddenly swerves in front of you and abruptly stops to pick up a passenger at a No Stopping zone?  And how many times have you witnessed this astrological, pre-ordained, beyond the understanding of mortal man event where the traffic enforcer looks away at the precise moment these things happen?

I’m sure you’ve had your fair share of witnessing these and even more scenarios which make you shed a painful tear when you think of the wasted tax money that go into the wages of these incredibly inept excuses for public servants.  I’ve seen more brains on an anemone (to save you the hassle, they’re actually brainless) than any of these enforcers combined collectively.  How else do you explain the logic behind counterflow-running mopeds who never seem to be at fault during every traffic collision they cause?  And when you argue your case against these enforcers, this is where their affinity to the sea anemone is exposed.  Did you know that the sea anemone’s mouth also serves as its anus?

I once asked how one can become a traffic enforcer.  I found out that traffic organizations go to the different barangays to deputize people to become traffic enforcers.  What do they actually do?  Do they go around every village and pick the village idiot?  Sadly no.  They pick barangay officials, tanods, and other government workers.  If that’s the level of intellect in our barangays, we are in deep trouble.  I’ve seen these very same people patrol the streets at night on mopeds without their helmets on.  And we’re deputizing them to enforce traffic laws?

Surely these deputized individuals are required to undergo education and training before they’re sent out there to educate road users in the comprehension, observance, and use of traffic signs, signal devices and controls, and to enforce traffic laws in order to maintain road user discipline in the city.  But at what level?  Isn’t a pedestrian crosswalk at an intersection supposedly free from obstruction?  Yet vehicles, especially mopeds, freely encroach onto the crosswalk right in front of a traffic enforcer.  Where’s the education and the enforcement?  What’s worse, an ordinance mandates them to do this.

Clock-punchers, that’s what they are.  And they’re also made in the mould of your typical salesperson.  They will stand at the street corner until their shift is done and head on home.  They will just observe and intervene only if it’s obviously a monster traffic jam.  They will let infractions pass until it’s towards the end of the month when they are told that their ‘fines’ collection is below quota.  Then they’ll start chasing after everything that moves.

Sadly, this is how they were taught.  This is how they were trained.  And this will carry on because that is what their superiors taught them, as this was also what was taught by the higher ups.  A friend of mine once told me, “there are no bad followers, only bad leaders.”