EDITORIAL - Driving without headlights goes on unchecked

It is good that a run-in over defective headlights between city treasurer Ofelia Oliva and her daughter on one hand and Land Transportation Office deputized agents on the other has prompted an investigation by LTO regional director Raul Aguilos.

Our interest is less about the run-in between the Olivas and the deputized agents but more on the matter of headlights, a problem that ought to finally get the attention of Aguilos and perhaps provoke him to take some action.

The problem of headlights is different from the Olivas as theirs involved a supposedly defective headlight. What Cebuano motorists face every night, however, is an entirely different matter — that of jeepney drivers deliberately turning off their headlights.

It is to be anticipated that LTO agents would claim they have been making apprehensions in this regard. But truth to tell, and this can be borne out by actual monitoring, they must not be doing enough because night after night you see these jeepneys without headlights.

Maybe Aguilos should check for himself whether what he observes at night jibes with what his LTO agents may claim, for we are pretty sure what he will find will be contrary to what his men are claiming.

We dare say, by actual experience, that right up to this writing, there are many jeepneys that ply city streets without turning on their headlights, putting in jeopardy not just the safety of their own passengers but those of other motorists as well.

Again, we are willing to give LTO agents the benefit of the doubt that they may have made some apprehensions in this regard. But the fact that the problem persists is the surest proof that they are not doing enough.

That right up to this day there are jeepneys with drivers bold enough to continue driving without headlights proves that there has not been enough deterrent for them to act otherwise. And when there is no deterrent, that can only mean not enough is being done about the problem.