Don’t follow me – I’m lost, too

Last Sunday, after our usual routine of visiting my parents and going to church and spending the day together, I drove home that evening with my wife and kids only to find the access road to our garage blocked by two vehicles, one after the other. This wasn’t the first time that an idiotic driver or two, left their vehicle or vehicles in front of our driveway except this time, it had a timely relevance to the coming elections.

The first vehicle, which was parked directly in front of our gate, was a government-issued Multicab that was being used for the re-election campaign of a local congressman, judging with a pair of bullhorns on the roof and the big election posters stuck on the sides of the vehicle. (Isn’t there an election ban to use government assets like vehicles during campaigns even if they came from the politician’s pork barrel?) There were some men, apparently campaign workers, hanging around the vehicle and when they saw my car, they signaled that the parked car behind them didn’t have a driver.

The other vehicle behind them was an older model green Honda Civic and after a few minutes of waiting for the driver to arrive, I approached the group in the Multicab and asked them if they know the owner of the Civic or his whereabouts. One of the campaign workers replied that it belonged to a certain city councilor, who I recognized as a two-bit lawyer running for the elected post. I immediately corrected the worker by saying that the Civic’s owner is not a city councilor yet, he’s merely running for the elected position. I added that I wouldn’t vote for candidates like him because he apparently does not know the law. Or if he does since he’s a lawyer, he has a wanton habit of violating it.

It took a long while before Civic’s driver appeared and it wasn’t the lawyer that went out to move the vehicle but another guy whom the lawyer apparently asked to move it for him. The poor guy couldn’t get the Civic started so the campaign workers from the Multicab pushed the car backwards to a perpendicular street so their own vehicle can back out and clear the way for my car to get into my garage. I reprimanded the drivers of both vehicles and told the driver of the Civic to remind the lawyer that there is a law against obstructing a private driveway, which is Section 56A of Memorandum Circular 89-105 issued by then Ministry and now Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) dated July 10, 1989.

I also found out that the lawyer was attending a birthday party being held in one of the alleys behind our house, apparently campaigning for the party-goers’ votes. And all the time we were waiting with my little boy Chevy sleeping in my wife Shawie’s tired arms, the idiotic lawyer and owner of the Honda Civic, who left his vehicle unmanned while obstructing a right-of-way with another vehicle, was partying and couldn’t be disturbed to move his car.

Are these the kind of people that we would vote for to lead us as our elected officials? I shudder to think.

This incident reminded me of that popular and humorous bumper sticker that read "Don’t Follow Me – I’m Lost, Too!" Often times, we elect politicians that promise to lead us to greater heights during the campaigns but actually lead us nowhere once they’re installed in power. A political analyst once commented that we Filipinos deserve the leaders we elected, whether they cheated or not, and that we likewise deserve the conditions that we are currently living in, traffic chaos and lack of strict enforcement included. After all, the analyst concluded, we unwisely chose our leaders. We have a cursed tendency then to follow a leader who’s lost and in the process, we end up lost ourselves.

Luckily, the Catholic Church is trying to do something about it. They came out with a Pastoral Letter that defines the qualifications of candidate that we must vote for – and one of them is that he or she must be morally upright and God-fearing. After all, how can an elected official manage his duties and lead his constituents if he can’t even manage his own life or his own household? Hopefully, you – our dear readers – have heard of the candidate’s qualifications listed in the Pastoral Letter and are contemplating about these qualifications with your choice of candidates.

While you are contemplating, please indulge us by looking at further qualities that the candidates must display while motoring around which will determine if you should vote for them or not.

He or she drives around in his or her personal vehicle and not in a government-issued vehicle;

He or she drives around in a vehicle that clearly displays its license plates and not a power-tripping "Councilor", "Vice-Mayor", "Mayor", "16", or "8" vanity plate, or if a license plate is attached at all.

He or she drives around without a convoy of armed bodyguards or goons;

He or she drives around without squeezing through traffic by using their flashers, blasting their sirens or intimidating other motorists (The President herself came out with a decree outlawing these practices but some jerks are still flaunting their violations of the President’s orders), and;

He or she drives around mindful of the rights and privileges of other road users, especially that of motorcyclists, bicycle riders and pedestrians.

I strongly appeal to you, dear readers, to make a mental note of candidates who travel as if they own the road and NOT to vote for these. After all, if they can wantonly violate every known traffic law just to quickly get to where they’re going and trample other road users’ rights in the process, they will surely act the same way while in public office with graft and corruption as an assured practice.

And if the candidate’s a conscientious motorist, he or she might even spearhead the streamlining of laws and agencies that can alleviate us from the monstrous traffic mess we find ourselves in everyday of our commuting lives. There are too many laws passed and too little enforcement done. It’s time we show our politicians that we want changes and we want them now – not after our country has contributed gravely to the ill effects of global warming; not after we’ve all suffered some mutant form of lung cancer due to the polluted air we breathe; not after traffic fatalities have piled up due to poor road conditions and poor traffic management; and certainly not after our kids have grown up and have become influenced by the unruliness of today’s motoring society.

We invoke you to vote with your conscience because our children’s future depends on the choices we make on May 14. Please vote conscientiously so that we may get leaders that are worthy of following, even while motoring.

As promised, we bring back your Backseat Driver reactions from as far back as two weeks ago.

Why there is no Philippine television network that broadcasts F1 "live"? – 09228003763 (The sport is only just gaining popularity here in our country. But we believe it’s only just a matter of time. In the meantime, you can tune in to Star Sports for coverage of the F1 races)

I agree, Lewis Hamilton made history, but do you think he could have made the podium if he was a Minardi driver? – 09215853997 (Let’s put it this way, Lewis Hamilton is so good that as far back as ten years ago, McLaren was already taking pains to groom him as its next F1 driver.)

Why can’t we force jeepneys to switch on their headlights at night? In the US, even well known movie stars are arrested for the same offense. – 09178531454 (Political will, dear reader. Or rather, the lack of it.)

It’s not so much the jeepneys without headlights and reckless bikers that are problems, it’s the traffic enforcers who do not apprehend them! – 09202664571 (Amen!)

Will the Kia Sportage 4WD 2.0 CRDi be made available in the future? – 09268636095 (What, you Backseat Drivers can read minds now? As a matter of fact, it will be available by this week. Check out the Kia dealership nearest you soon.)

Gee, James really talks a lot of sense. I suggest you add some more pages to accommodate both writers and texters. Thanks! – Jorj, Dasmariñas, Cavite (We try, Jorj. We always do. Thanks for your enthusiasm.)

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 2840 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.)