Balisong

Last Sunday, we braved the early morning rain to make it to our Sunday worship at the Victory Christian Fellowship Center in Lipa City. As expected there was a line of cars and tricycles dropping off worshippers who were trying to get out of the rain.

After the girls got out, I simply waited for the tricycle in front of me to start driving out. But instead he seemed to be fiddling or trying to fix something that was caught in his pants’ pocket and the side of his tricycle. He seemed stressed by the whole thing so I just watched him with curiosity.

After a minute or two I got the shock of my life because what I saw sent a cold shiver down my spine. This tricycle driver who had just dropped off worshippers in church, was pulling out a really big balisong!, the legendary fan knife that is so common among menfolk in the province of Batangas. Lucky for me, he was just transferring it to another pocket and not intending to use it on me!

I wanted to get his license plate number or body number or TODA number but there was none. In the blink of an eye, the guy was gone and I was so frustrated and worried that the guy could get into an argument, but instead of a fist fight he could just bring out his huge fan knife and express his road rage by making sashimi slices on someone’s belly!

That evening I contacted someone at the LTO Region 4A to share the frightening experience in the hope that the Lipa City traffic authorities headed by a gentleman named Mr. Manalo as well as the Lipa City police department could all conduct regular checks not just on motorcycle riders but also on tricycle drivers. Imagine what could happen if an unarmed traffic enforcer, an LTO law enforcement officer all of whom don’t carry guns end up in a heated argument with a drunk or drug dependent tricycle driver who has a concealed 9 or 10 inch balisong!

I hope that DILG Secretary Año gets to read this column so he too would come to realize that more has to be done aside from getting tricycles out of national highways. We need to give back to the Land Transportation Office the regulatory powers and supervision over tricycles because local governments have clearly failed to regulate the operation of tricycle drivers as well as monitor and supervise tricycle drivers.

The only thing that most LGUs have done is to set up TOROs or Tricycle Operations Regulatory Offices and go after tricycles that are unregistered or to collect money from fines. There are no spot checks and as a result, these kings of the road violate traffic rules, thumb their noses against other drivers confident that in a fight they can inflict serious harm using a short piece of steel pipe or a bente nueve!

When I mentioned the incident to one of our parttime workers he casually replied; “Sadyang maluwag sa Lipa.” Chief PNP Gamboa please get your men to sweep the place regularly before someone gets cut into several slices!

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I’m not a lawyer but we all have something better than a lawyer; we have Dr. Google, and according to Dr. Google, the short definition or explanation of what “Quo Warranto” is, is “a special form of legal action used to resolve a dispute over whether a specific person has the legal right to hold the public office that he or she occupies. Quo Warranto is used to test a person’s legal right to hold an office, not to evaluate the person’s performance in office. For example, a Quo Warranto action may be brought to determine whether a public official satisfies a requirement that he or she resides in the district; or whether a public official is serving in two incompatible offices.”

So now, the question is, did the Solicitor General file a Defecto Warranto or a Distracto Warranto? I can’t believe that the great Joe Calida terror of magistrates would file a defective Quo Warranto. So is it possible that he filed a Quo Warranto the only purpose of which is to distract the media and public attention from the government’s struggles with dealing or managing the novel coronavirus situation in the Philippines?

Or is it possible that the plan is to let the Supreme Court do what Congress is unwilling to do; deny ABS-CBN a new franchise because someone in Congress is banking on the support of ABS-CBN when he runs for President?

Is the game plan to get the Supreme Court to blacklist ABS-CBN in order to prevent them from ever getting a Franchise?

Or is all of this just par for the course to drive up the price and desperation for a new franchise?

Apparently, the reason why ABS-CBN executives could not get their franchise in past Congresses was because the “price” was too much to pay. Who knows, not even Dr. Google can read into the wicked plans of mice and men.

While I try to make light of the matter, we should all consider the possibility that the brazen attempt of the administration to force ABS-CBN down to its knees or out of business at a time when Rodrigo Duterte plays “chicken” or “blind man’s bluff” against the United States can be very dangerous. As the 11th Commandment warns us all; “Thou Shall Not Push thy Luck.”

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