“Balayan” is a Kapampangan word meaning “a cluster of houses.” It also means “community” or “neighborhood.” In this column I will attempt to describe community life in Tarlac in all its facets.
If you think that replacing your four-wheel vehicle with a motorcycle will help you save on hard-earned money, think again! The monetary benefits may not even compensate for the indignities that you will suffer because of what many motorcycle owners and riders describe as the “anti-poor policies” and the “money-making schemes” of the Land Transportation Office (LTO). Worse, the headache and heartache of dealing every day with these crazy policies and even crazier LTO “deputies” that implement them can lead to high-blood pressure, if not to an outright stroke.
An administrative order from the Land Transportation Office issued a few months ago has raised howls of protest from motorcycle riders not only in Tarlac but also in other parts of the country, particularly in Metro Manila and Iloilo City.
Among others, the order requires motorcycle riders to wear leather boots while driving. Without these expensive pair of foot gear, motorcycle drivers face the grim prospect of being flagged down by LTO’s deputized “henchmen,” who, with extraordinary zeal, would take away their driver’s license. To get their license back, they would have to pay the required fine, making them several hundred pesos poorer.
The AO has also increased the penalties for certain violations. Failure to wear a “standard helmet,” for example, would mean a fine of P1,500 (up from a few hundred pesos before the issuance of the order). But what does “standard helmet” mean? According to the LTO order, it is a “protective helmet approved by the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) with PNS-UNECE 22 marking.” Thus, the cheap helmets that poor people usually buy because these are the only ones they could afford to buy are, after all, unacceptable as far as the LTO is concerned. Worse, for failure to purchase the prescribed helmet, they stand to be penalized in monetary terms and thus lose more money than they had hoped to save.
Aside from the unreasonable provision requiring motorcycle riders to wear leather boots a la Lito Lapid and the excessive fines for certain violations, motorcycle-riding bloggers and columnists are one is expressing puzzlement over the LTO’s strictures on modification of the original design of motorcycles. They ask: Why should the LTO prevent motorcycle owners from modifying their motorcycles when it allows car and SUV owners to modify theirs? This is discrimination, they say. This is anti-poor. I am tempted to agree.
I also find the implementation of these policies and the people who implement them even more detestable. In particular, the habit of many LTO deputies of fishing for violations does not engender support for the LTO.
In Tarlac, for example, LTO representatives have the tendency to flag down motorcycles and motorized tricycles even without visible signs of violations. I don’t know if this practice is allowed in the LTO’s “rules of engagement,” but even if it is, it doesn’t justify the loss of precious time on the part of the motorcycle/tricycle driver and passenger/s. And to law-abiding citizens who have broken no rules, to be accosted without reason is a traumatic experience.
About a year ago, I was driving my Honda XRM motorcycle with my wife riding pillion behind me. We were both wearing full-face helmets; mine was black, hers was red. We were passing in front of the NIA Compound (the favorite tambayan of a group of LTO people) when we saw one of them signaling us to stop. We stopped. I inquired what the matter was. He didn’t reply. Instead, he circled our motorcycle like a hyena looking for an opportunity to pounce. After that, he spent what must have been a lifetime inspecting every nut and bolt of my motorcycle. Finding no reason to whip out his ticket and slap us with a violation, he told us we could go.
I understand that these people have to earn their keep. I know that, like you and me, they have families to feed. And I also know that for every traffic violator that they apprehend they get a percentage of the fine to be paid by the violator. But they should not lose sight of the fact that the very reason they’re there is to protect the lives and limbs of the motorists by upholding the policies and regulations of the LTO. If they’re causing more harm than good by being abusive, overbearing and unreasonable, then they should not be let loose upon the hapless motorists, most especially motorcycle and tricycle riders and drivers.
