A 10-year study showed that more than 57,000 pedestrians were hit by vehicles in Metro Manila, including those who lost their lives simply crossing the streets. Notwithstanding the designated crossing “zebra” lanes (large bold white lines on black asphalt) which are supposed to be the haven for crossing pedestrians, drivers and car owners do not seem to care to slow down and stop properly. They all break the traffic laws with impunity, putting the lives of people in jeopardy. Reason: Our lack of discipline as a people, which is also why our laws are not enforced. Discipline must start from the top executive of the city.
I put the blame squarely on the city mayors for defaulting on their sworn obligation as heads of their respective cities to uphold and enforce all laws to protect the public. Their negligence has led to the current rampant life-threatening behavior of drivers in our cities. While the drivers may be the actual law-breakers, who should be penalized, their employers, who should know better, are unapologetic consenting co-conspirators, who ought to be penalized several times more. If there is no existing “command responsibility law” applicable to this particular situation, it’s about time our legislators enacted one to prevent more deaths and injuries.
Why should crossing the street on the designated lanes be risky at all? Weren’t they so designed to protect the pedestrians? Why should the citizens be in constant fear and have to run for their life every time they cross the streets? And sadly, some police officers on site simply don’t care!
‘… shall we still wait for a member of our own family to be killed first before we act in solidarity?’
In more disciplined countries, where laws are strictly enforced and respected, like Singapore, Japan, the United States, Dubai, and others, vehicles start to slow down (with no police officer around) when they are about 50 feet from the crossing lane and then fully stop about 10 feet from the lane when drivers see a person wanting (not even starting yet) to cross and do not try to outrun the pedestrians as they do in Metro Manila. As long as there is even a single pedestrian on that safety lane, no car would be passing in front or at the back of that person. The pedestrian has the right to change his/her mind and suddenly turn around and go back without being hit by a car behind her. Only when the entire crossing lane is totally empty would any car move. Pedestrians in those countries are respected and protected and not terrorized like pedestrians in Metro Manila and other cities in the Philippines.
These same drivers, who blatantly violate the laws in the city with brazen decorum, somehow became transformed into model law-abiding drivers when they enter the formerly American-owned Clark Field Subic Airbase. Why? Because they know that traffic rules there are strictly enforced and violators severely penalized. But the moment they got out of the compound, they resume their usual recklessness with impunity…because they know they would get away with it.
It is therefore clear that the behavior of drivers in Metro Manila could be modified, if (and only if) our city mayors, chiefs of police, MMDA, and other related agencies are themselves disciplined enough to enforce the laws.
Just one well-publicized story (highlighted in all news and social media around the country) about a drastic penalty levied against a violator driver and heavier yet against the employee/owner of the car (under a new law) for not stopping properly at crossing lanes would surely be noticed nationwide and serve as a good warning and deterrent to future violators. Behavioral modification through legal enforcement and the application of heavy penalties on the offenders have been proven to be effective. Obviously, the initiative must start from the top, with the mayors, where the bucks stop!
Part of Article 3 of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights is the right to personal security. The Presidential Decree of 1959 (1984), an amendment of the Land Transportation Traffic Code of 1964, obliges motorists to give way to pedestrians in pedestrian lanes or “Zebra Lanes.”
If law enforcement is not executed properly, it is the mayor’s fault (doctrine of command responsibility). And the culpability is self-evident. Thousands of dangerous ongoing breaches of the laws and ordinances are glaring evidence in themselves which the mayors cannot refute.
I challenge the people of Metro Manila to be proactive and preemptive and not wait for another 57,000 individuals to be killed by reckless drivers (and their more guilty employers) before confronting our city mayors and demanding that the laws (traffic and otherwise) of Metro Manila and the country are strictly enforced, putting the onus not only on the driver but the employer-owner of the car, who, as earlier suggested, deserves a harsher punishment.
Every citizen, especially the youth, should organize themselves as a vigilant net citizen electronic socio-civic watchdog, like e-Guardian Angels, and take videos on their cellphones as proof of this dangerous governmental neglect, any uncorrected infra-structure hazards, and other misdeeds or abuses by government officials. And this netizen watchdog movement could be duplicated in all cities in the country to serve and protect our national dignity and our people’s rights.
It is our obligation to ourselves, our families, and our fellow citizens to help protect and look out for each other. The politicians won’t.
Unless We, The People, fight for our rights, we deserve every rotten situation we get, and we can blame no one else but ourselves.
Now, shall we still wait for a member of our own family to be killed first before we act in solidarity?
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Philip S. Chua, MD, FACS, FPCS, a Cardiac Surgeon Emeritus based in Northwest Indiana and Las Vegas, Nevada, is an international medical lecturer/author, Health Advocate, newspaper columnist, and Chairman of the Filipino United Network-USA, a 501(c)3 humanitarian foundation in the United States. He was a decorated recipient of the Indiana Sagamore of the Wabash Award in 1995, presented by then Indiana Governor, later Senator, and then-presidential candidate Evan Bayh. Other Sagamore past awardees include President Harry Truman, President George HW Bush, Muhammad Ali, and Astronaut Gus Grissom (Wikipedia). Websites: FUN8888.com, Today.SPSAtoday.com, and philipSchua.com Email: scalpelpen@gmail.com