Icons of everything wrong in transport

Icons or symbols say a lot about a country and its people. They also provide insight to how a government designs, organizes, or manages things. In the Philippines the jeepney, the tricycle and more recently scooters/motorcycles have become the icons of what is wrong, broken and unlawful in terms of Philippine transport.

What used to be “King of the Road” has degenerated into the “Trash of the Road.” They are perpetual coffins on wheels where the steering column is a spear just waiting for the right accident to impale upon a driver. There is not enough legroom between the driver and the pedals resulting to drivers operating jeepneys sideways. The spare tire blocks the driver’s exit in an emergency while being a potentially explosive product that could kill the driver in a side collision.

Passengers sitting sideways and unstrapped make them potential projectiles waiting to be launched in the next head-on collision. Jeepneys have no seat belts, no hazard lights. Most of them don’t even have functioning headlights and taillights or signal lights. The numerous metal accessories and sharp steel trims will surely lacerate people on contact. The body structure of the jeepney is the equivalent of a steel cage that will crush passengers in a collision or roll over instead of protecting them.

If that realization scares you, take a good look at the tricycles that many of us use to avoid having to walk in the burning sun. People don’t want to burn or sweat but it never occurs to them that riding in a tricycle can be dangerous to your health especially people with bad backs. The seating is so hard it can injure your rear, your back, or your spine. The roof is illegally too low, the materials and design also make it a death trap, and now they are churning out six-seater tricycles with motorcycles that are not designed to drive or handle such a payload so the chances of losing the brakes will be a lot higher.

As “vehicles,” almost all jeepneys, tricycles and a number of motorcycle-scooters in the Philippines symbolize every possible violation of vehicle safety. Many scooters and motorcycles have open type mufflers, illegal illuminations or accessories, are uprated for high speed use but with no compensation for safety.

The jeepney, tricycles and modified scooters violate just about every rule the LTO and the LTFRB and MMDA has. But the mere fact that jeepneys, tricycles and scooter/motorcycles have become UNTOUCHABLES, is also iconic of the failure and corruption of the LTFRB, LTO and MMDA and their systemic corruption and failure cannot be covered up by seasonal law enforcement raids or gimmicks because the icons of what is wrong serve as daily reminders of how government agencies have failed.

Is it any wonder that President Rodrigo Duterte’s solution to the problem is the idea of abolishing the LTFRB, LTO and perhaps the MMDA? Maybe by abolishing those agencies the administration could start clean and have a fresh set of public servants who are not related and generationally employed like those in the Bureau of Customs where certain employees are third generation relatives! With no malice to the new officials appointed by President Duterte, I have suggested before that offices like the LTO and LTFRB be privatized so that the profit and efficiency culture in the private sector can replace corruption and power tripping. Failing to do that, the very same agencies should at least give us our money’s worth as taxpayer and get rid of the icons of failure.

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“Fool me once – shame on you. Fool me twice – shame on me.” Fool us three, four, five times into infinity indicates insanity which was aptly defined for Filipinos by Albert Einstein when he said: “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.” That is exactly what several administrations and presidents have fallen into in their desperate pursuit for peace with the NDF /NPA. What is infuriating is that in all our failed efforts to find peace with the NDF/NPA, the government particularly our soldiers, Cafgus, and policemen have become the sacrificial lambs who are slaughtered in ambushes, landmines and attacks as they return to barracks or comply with ceasefire orders trusting and believing that the NDF/NPA are also tired of war and bloodshed.

To add insult to injury they have the gall to blame the latest of many ambushes done by the NPA as the fault of the military, not to mention the slur and verbal abuse that Joma Sison hurled at the President of the Philippines calling him “a market mouth” (Butangero).

The NPA leaders don’t want peace because it would render them obsolete in the eyes of their followers. They don’t seek peace because they are convinced that if a government is asking for peace, the NDF/NPA must have the upper hand. The NDF/NPA apparently believes that if governments in the past have foolishly recognized them and gave in to their demands, the next government that seeks peace must also be willing to give in or compromise.

Curiously, the old men of the NDF took shots at the United States as being responsible for Duterte withdrawing his ceasefire declaration. Blaming the US is very telling because it indicates that the US apparently hurt the NDF by classifying them as “TERRORISTS,” effectively cutting any direct funding and support for the NDF/NPA. There the answer lies. Deal with the NDF/NPA for what they really are: Terrorists and that will totally change the terms of engagement with people who in the first place clearly do not want peace and will never truly and sincerely cooperate. As many governments have declared: “We do not negotiate with Terrorists.”

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