The Right Fight

Last week, as members of Congress were taking all day to explain why they either chose to support or oppose the Congress’ Justice Committee decision to junk the impeachment complaints against a beleaguered President Arroyo, this writer was busy listening to the arguments made by a number of private sector representatives and entities for the establishment of a comprehensive national road safety program. As I sat there listening to a bunch of non-politicians spew out almost mundane facts and figures, it occurred to me that I was actually listening to a much more productive group of people than those grabbing the spotlight in the Batasan premises.

I mean, let’s face it, the entire process in Congress was a blatant display of political grandstanding, complete with rhetoric fireworks courtesy of our oh-so-eloquent lawmakers — and nothing more. Whichever side of the fence your district’s Congressman was on, he or she was actually participating in an elaborate telenovela more than in a process that would have been anything close to being productive, if you know what I mean. I’d wager that the trauma surgeons I met then — who had horror stories on the results of vehicular accidents caused mostly by the Filipino motorists’ lack of discipline and knowledge on proper safety procedures — had more valid arguments than any of our honorable representatives. In fact, the fifty or so people present in the Road Safety Conference sponsored by the Automobile Association of the Philippines were probably tackling a much more pressing concern than all the weary lawmakers combined.

Let’s try to put things in perspective here. Our family has a home in the province of Baras, Rizal, which is just a two-hour drive from bustling Pasig City (not very far away but rural nonetheless). We visit the house almost every weekend. Given the frequency of our visits, we have obviously made many friends among the locals. Any time we ask them whether they would like to see President Arroyo unseated, they tell us they could care less. Ask any of the locals whether they would like to see more efforts to keep their children safe along the highways that lead to the province, and then we get them talking.

The point I’m trying to drive at here is that local folk, at least those living outside of Metro Manila, don’t see how changing the people in power will affect their lives. They are, however, concerned about issues that directly affect them. So why does road safety rank among their interests, you ask? A UNICEF study reveals that vehicular accidents are the leading cause of injuries nationwide. In fact statistics show that in the Philippines, 11 Filipino children are killed on the road every hour — four of them being pedestrians. Or, to put it another way, 96,000 Filipino children are either killed or injured on the road every year. Our neighbors in Baras have obviously had their share of incidents and/or accidents. Whether their children were among those statistics (or if they were, thankfully, only injured) is moot. The fact is, they don’t care who the President is, but they do fear for the lives of their children while they are out on the road. The question is, what is the government — our Congressmen included — doing to address this fear?

Department of Public Works and Highways Undersecretary Manuel Bonoan, who was present during the conference, said that, "the Government is trying its best to address road safety concerns." He did, in fact, present to the participants the Government’s Road Safety Action Plan — which was admittedly comprehensive. However, when asked whether the government agencies involved in the National Road Safety Council have met on the matter and/or made any moves to put the plan into action, the good Undersecretary had to admit that the members of council have yet to convene, a year after they had already drafted the plan. Bonoan lamented that the Government has been tackling one urgent issue after another, hence the shelving of the Philippine Road Safety Action Plan — for the moment.

So here’s where you, dear reader, ought to make your own conclusions. As our children die on the road, 11 by the hour, our President is busy trying to stave off a monumental effort to unseat her. As we all gleefully join in the political babbling — bashing her and her people on one side, ridiculing her opponents on the other — she naturally shelves all other projects that have nothing to do with her staying in power (the National Road Safety Action Plan included). I don’t know about you but by jumping into the impeachment bandwagon, it seems to me that we’ve all trapped ourselves in a battle where there are no apparent victors.

If we instead lobby for legislation (which is what our Congressmen ideally ought to be doing to begin with) and/or work for the education of our children on proper and safe road use and practices, wouldn’t we be more productive? If we start now and by the end of the year see the number of children dying every hour from vehicular accidents go down from 11 to 10, wouldn’t we have made more of a difference? Again, let’s try to put things in perspective. If I take five minutes to explain to my child why we ought to oust President Arroyo, what kind of impact would I make? If I took those same five minutes and told my child why he or she has to cross the street only where there are consecutive white stripes, what kind of impact would I make? In other words, which five minutes do you think were better spent?

I don’t know about you, but all this impeachment brouhaha seems like a dead issue to me. For what it’s worth, I always thought it was a useless fight to begin with — like I said, no winners. Perhaps just like my neighbors in Baras, I too believe that politics matters little. The fight against a killer that takes 11 of our children by the hour, on the other hand, seems much more urgent to me. I’d like to take my bat called education and use it to bash the head of this ugly beast called road accidents, if you don’t mind. This is the right fight to be in, and it’s one I — and I’m sure many of our Congressmen’s other constituents — intend to win. Your honors, care to join us?

POST SCRIPT: We won’t just talk about championing road safety, we’ll actually work for it. Starting today — and every week thereafter — we will dedicate a small space in this section for the benefit of educating our road users. What we’ll do is feature a road sign once a week and explain its significance. Hopefully, this small but continuous effort will help in improving public awareness and knowledge of road safety signs.

Backseat Driving has many of us not just complaining about improper road use, but giving out trade secrets as well. Here are some reactions from last week.

I get 15-18 km/l in my 1.4L Sentra. I used NGK Platinum Plugs and synthetic oil. — 09178738602

Through your column, please help motorists coming from Las Piñas to Cavite passing under the overpass who struggle to make a left turn with motorists coming from Coastal road. — 09213193259 (Quite a hellhole, that area, huh?)

Before some idiot official moves to ban our motor sports due to rising fuel costs, ban first 6 and 8 cylinder SUVs for government use! We pay for their vehicles! — 09193914791 (Amen!)

Can you write a comparison among family vans? I’m planing to buy one. Your tips are really very helpful. — 09209050171 (You can check out our Wheels special section for such elaborate comparo stories. It comes out every last Friday of the month.)

Illegal parking along Capulong highway especially at the back of the police station 1. This poses danger to motorists. — 09209507502 (Right, like endangering motorists is enough reason for authorities to act on a matter...)

Though I am a Mitsubishi fan, I’m afraid Mitsubishi still does not offer vehicles equipped with a CRDi engine but only a common rail diesel engine. — 09213049117 (An astute observation, dear Watson!)

Is it safe to change my OEM halogen headlight bulbs to 100 watt halogen bulbs without putting extra relays? — 09189188940 (Absolutely not! You run the risk of starting a fire in your engine by doing so. So make the smart move and pay the extra P200 or so for safer alternative headlamps.)

I changed lane to turn right to Shaw from EDSA and was charged with reckless swerving. It’s disgusting. — 09198066395 (Yes, it is disgusting. Especially since *#@$%# buses do it all the time and are never flagged down.)

Are commemorative plates banned? — 09205040739 (Not really, but it doesn’t really matter if you have commemorative plates or not. Nobody is safe from color coding-mad cops. They just ignore the other — more important and consequential — traffic violations.)

Speak out, be heard and keep those text messages coming in. To say your piece and become a "Backseat Driver", text PHILSTAR<space>FB<space> MOTORING<space>YOUR MESSAGE and send to 2333 if you’re a Globe or Touch Mobile subscriber or 334 if you’re a Smart or Talk ’n Text subscriber or 2840 if you’re a Sun Cellular subscriber. Please keep your messages down to a manageable 160 characters. You may send a series of comments using the same parameters.