Fetalvero: Understanding with your heart

“WHEN you cannot understand something with your mind, try to understand it with your heart.” This was the advice I received from my grandmother when I got frustrated about things that did not seem to make any sense.

There are a number of things in Philippine environment that do not add up to common sense and logic. However, if we have to consider how most Filipinos grew up in an atmosphere of “dog eat dog,” then most likely we will have a more understanding heart.

I am a motorist who drives a registered car. I have paid registration fees and complied with whatever the Land Transportation Office has required. I am also a licensed driver that went through the seminar, took the driving test and paid all fees relative to the acquisition of a driver’s license. I have also paid the so called road user’s tax. However, I am often times confronted with a situation that makes any motorist cry in frustration.

At the very corner of the access road leading to the national highway is a trisikad unloading some passengers. A passenger reaches in for his wallet to pay his ride, then at his own pace, the operator of the two-wheeled vehicle looks for some lose change to give to the passenger then he makes a slow U-turn to the left side of the road.

Where was I as this was happening? I was sitting in front of the steering wheel, waiting patiently for all the transactions to be done. Some days I am not that lucky because there maybe two or three of these trisikads in front of me. There was even one incident wherein a driver simply left his empty trisikad at the very same corner.

This scenario is common in almost all barangays except for some few villages where the village captains are doing their jobs to ensure peace and order in their areas of responsibility. Barangay tanods involved in school zone traffic may want to widen their scope of responsibility.

There is an existing traffic rule that prohibits the loading and unloading of passengers or parking of any vehicle at any given corner. This ruling is to facilitate movement of vehicles that want to go into the main road or highways.