CITOM O1

In his inaugural speech, His Excellency President Benigno Simeon Cojuangco Aquino III made personal and emphatic issue out of "wang-wang and counter-flow". The president was referring to that blatant use of unauthorized sirens and personalized license plates by some well-positioned functionaries and high strung individuals.

This policy may not affect our country's fiscal position such that those who prefer to think profound may not view it with seriousness but, shorn of its apparently trivial cast, it demonstrates a healthy respect for the law and more importantly a sincere effort to implement our statutes. And that, to me, is important.

The projection of the president can be in fact, fully appreciated as something noble. For some time, we have had leaders who were perceived to abuse their powers and in the process, desecrate the law. It is thus a whiff of fresh air for the new president to attempt to discipline our people into respecting the law.

The president is in the right direction. Without doubt, his reason is to stop some people from putting on their vehicles, mostly cars, sirens and plate numbers that showcase their prominence in our society. In effect, he levels the field among all road users. For a long time, many a public official, announce their presence on the road by some shrieking sound of the abnormal kind as if to alert others on the road to give way. This act is usually capped with the identification of the officer by the name written on the plate number like mayor, councilor or even barangay captain.

Pres. Aquino has clarified his position. It behooves upon all of us, especially government officials to take heed. And I like to believe that people occupying high government positions as well as private car owners should voluntarily remove these sound gadgets from their cars and put away their plates of prominence.

But, few days ago, while we were slowly negotiating the heavy traffic on M. J. Cuenco Avenue, near the boundaries of the adjoining barangays of Hipodromo and Mabolo, a white Nissan Terrano whizzed by. It was, in the words of Pres. Aquino, doing some kind of a counter-flow.

When the vehicle was in front of us, I could not read any plate number. There was none. On the part of the car for plate numbers, there was a personalized announcement. It read CITOM 01. I took that to mean that it was its plate number - CITOM 01. The vehicle could only be a Cebu City-owned car considering that CITOM is an agency of the city government. Judging from the pre-eminence of the number - "1", that car could be service vehicle assigned to the top honcho of the traffic department of the city government. I noticed that it too, had blinkers although when I saw it, the said lights were put off.

I then began to imagine that Cebu City is a special city. It lies outside of the policy of Pres. Aquino and is exempt from the implementation of Philippine laws. Specifically, the provisions of the Land Transportation and Traffic Code do not apply to city-owned vehicles. The city government can issue and use its own plate numbers in derogation of the national traffic code. And when it does assign its own plate numbers, like CITOM 01, no one will book its driver for any infraction.

Of course, my imagination could be both extravagant and wrong. Proof of my flawed assumption is the fact that shortly after the president made clear his "anti wang-wang policy", our national police forces, including that of the city, went to work. They took the president's cue. The police authorities launched drives aimed at enforcing not just the presidential decree issued early in the martial law regime of the late Pres. Ferdinand E. Marcos, but of the Land Transportation Code provision on the use of plate numbers. And they bagged hundreds of violators.

Unfortunately, the number one violator in Cebu City, is probably tasked to implement traffic rules. If the White Nissan Terrano with that plate number CITOM 01 continues to sport this plate while running the streets of our city, there is no meaning to the policy of Pres. Aquino.

* * *

Email: [email protected]