‘Magalong leads an advocacy group for good and honest governance in local government that spearheaded a petition among local officials urging strongly for transparency, accountability, and integrity.’
THE road-rage incident in Barangay Calumpang, Antipolo City last week should be a good lesson for motorbike riders. One was killed and three others were wounded when the motorist who was being beaten up started shooting at the bikers ganging up on him.
Any violent road-rage encounter can be avoided if one party refuses to be provoked physically. Personally, I would not step down from my vehicle during a heated verbal altercation with another motorist or biker. I had done that several times many years ago, even engaging the driver of a utility truck in a fistfight in the middle of the road.
After a series of fatal road-rage incidents, I swore to myself that I would just stay put in my car even when faced with a hostile situation.
This should serve as a strong warning to all bikers. Many drivers of private vehicles carry either a licensed or unlicensed firearm, and, if provoked or threatened physically, like what happened in the Antipolo shooting, they are likely to use their weapons against the other offending motorist or biker. The overly aggressive group of riders virtually pushed the motorist against the wall, the latter reaching the point of going for his gun to protect his own life.
While the government continues to earn hundreds of millions from taxes on motorbikes, it has turned a blind eye to the mounting number of accidents arising from the lack of discipline and rampant recklessness among countless bikers. What exists is a regular token driving orientation conducted by motorbike dealers, which are thrown out of the window when the bikers hit the road.
Majority of road accidents involving motorcycles have been caused by irresponsible and reckless riders who think they have the run of the place, swerving and weaving in wild abandon, causing traffic hazards to other vehicles. Except in checkpoints, they are not subjected to any form of lawful enforcement and penalty for any traffic violation, unlike motorists.
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Mayor Benjamin Magalong of Baguio City has a real fight on his hands and he is far from giving up. He regularly posts online that a powerful leader at the House of Representatives is supporting his rival, a Filipino-Chinese, for the mayoralty post by pouring in reportedly hundreds of millions of pesos for vote-buying purposes.
Magalong leads an advocacy group for good and honest governance in local government that spearheaded a petition among local officials urging strongly for transparency, accountability, and integrity. Last year, the petition was signed only by 150 local mayors and governors, which was an expressed declaration that the corrupt and grafters will continue with their merry ways.
The Commission on Elections and the DILG have been strangely silent over the persistent reports of political harassment and the surge of vote-buying in Baguio, with reliable sources claiming that several national and local news media companies have been bought to favor Magalong’s very wealthy rival. Has President Bongbong Marcos chosen to ignore the brazen violations of election laws by a close ally?
The coming Holy Week beckons bribing and cheating politicians for reflection and repentance. Most continue to trust and adore their reputation, wealth and power more than the God who created man and the universe. Many will, of course, exhibit hypocritical and token gestures of uprightness and compassion, but will revert to their usual ungodly and wicked life after the Holy Week.
Real friends of legislators who were criminally charged in the pork barrel scam should pray fervently and possibly fast for them, not only during the Holy Week. Unremorseful senators whose criminal raps were dismissed, shocking the public, think very little of the consequent moral damage of their apparent criminal impunity to our country’s culture.
