Criminal disobedience

 Civil disobedience does not work.

Certain Anti-Arroyo personalities have suggested various forms of “civil disobedience” in order to harass or make life annoying for the administration. Some of them even think that civil disobedience would be a great first step to ousting the current President.

In case people have forgotten, the very reason Gloria Macapagal Arroyo became President is because of our collective civil disobedience! As they say; “you get what you paid for!”

Allow me to point out that civil disobedience is nothing new to all Filipinos. We regularly practice civil disobedience as our way of “fixing things” which is often our short-term shortcut and highly illegal way of placing the law into our own hands. They fall under the title “Made Up in the Philippines”.

Somewhere in the Timog and “Scouts” area of Quezon City you may have come across a furniture shop that has a sign saying, “ANTIQUES MADE TO ORDER”. It’s certainly funny since you don’t just “make” a real antique but the sign shows how Filipinos “make things up” as they go along.

Just observe all the “illegal“ signs Filipinos make, the most popular being “No parking - reserved for resident” or “Parking for customers only”!  Sorry folks but no one owns the road, not even in private subdivisions. They fall under open space, shared space, or community property. If you are not an honest taxpayer or you don’t pay membership dues, your signs and your claims are false! You’re also obstructing and defacing public property.

Next on the list of the civil disobedience practitioner are illegal stickers. Many of us are guilty of using or placing stickers especially in cars even if we are not authorized to. Some even illegally manufacture “Village” stickers to do short cuts through exclusive villages.

Of course not everyone lives in an exclusive village. So they simply decide to block off their strip of the neighborhood and erect gates and guardhouses in the interest of security. Presto! They now live in an exclusive neighborhood “illegally” set up by civilians being disobedient to public order. But since everybody does it, it must be OK, right? Go ask a judge and go in shock!

Not all are created equal so those who can’t become President choose to be mayor and dictator. Others are better at this and simply create their own country. Some mayors now behave over and above the MMDA while others act like they are over and above the President and the laws of the land!

Getting back to the business of stickers, others make or buy “PNP” stickers, House of Representatives, etc just to scare the traffic police or the MMDA from giving us a ticket and a fine! Of course the “media” has not been spared from people who use company logos or stickers even if they don’t work for or belong to these organizations.

Sadly the organization of General Avelino Razon is the most guilty of using “POLICE” stickers instead of plate numbers on their motorcycles. For better effect they hang a pair of handcuffs on the rear view mirror and police lights on the dash boards, not because it’s part of official police business, but because they want to be untouchable to parking attendants or their justification for not wearing helmets while driving motorcycles.

Yesterday, I saw a guy wearing blue jeans, a white helmet that resembled official police gear, a blue police light on his tail and the word POLICE written on the rear fender. He had no plate numbers like 90% of police escorts! I still don’t believe he was an official Motorcycle cop because he was driving a white high end “Ducatti”, a very expensive bike.

Maybe Ping Lacson should investigate how the PNP or a cop can afford a “Ducatti”.

Next, you have the vehicle plate numbers used to intimidate, impress or simply take advantage of certain courtesies that they are not entitled to. Top on the list is the magical number 8 for members of Congress but are now used by their maids, their mistresses and their brats. Next would be the “blue plate” signifying non-tax paid, then the commemorative fraud plate to confuse traffic enforcers. 

 While the leftist and everyday complainers protest against the National Identity Card, Everyone else is busy making up their own IDs, calling cards, position and titles. It’s been so widespread that radio commercials have spoofed how we make up our identities.

If you ever get sentenced to go to prison, make sure you have millions of pesos to give away to mayors or millions of supporters who are willing to start a revolution for you. This way you can make your own prison such as a rest house or a hospital suite in a hospital badly in need of cash.

We are not civil. We are simply disobedient.

People tasked to model civility such as government officials, senators, and bishops have shown utter disrespect for authority and office. Those in authority have shown complete disregard or contempt for civilians. Civilians disregard each other in the way we drive, we lay claim to public property, or declare our entitlement.

Our collective disobedience is rooted in our selfishness, our arrogance, and above all our self-righteous yet false piety. We justify the wrong we do by declaring rights we have not earned or have contributed so little to.

The second big sin or mistake is that we solve problems because of our impatience. This unfortunately is another consequence of living in a society privileged to have servants always at your call. Rather than allowing “the system” to develop and work for us, we simply shortcut and short-circuit the system.

So we end up with public officials who don’t understand the concept of a “public servant” or “civil service”. They carry with them the “amo” or boss mentality and expect to be served while bossing other public servants around. We don’t write to our congressmen or ask mayors to account for their programs and services because we can’t wait and we can’t be bothered.

We just do it ourselves. We simply practice daily civil disobedience, a shortcut that has resulted in long-term damage. Perhaps when we decide to obey our most basic guide…our conscience…maybe then we can finally benefit from being obedient.