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Thursday, January 19, 2006
Espinoza: Convicting a traffic violator
By Elias L. Espinoza
When Mandaue City Asst. Prosecutor Jun Mabanto called me up last week telling me he would give me a copy of the court’s decision convicting a policeman for disobeying a traffic enforcer, I thought he was joking. But he wasn’t.
Municipal Trial Court Judge Wilfredo A. Dagatan convicted SPO2 Lamberto Hibaya for not wearing a safety helmet while driving a motorcycle and for resisting and disobeying a traffic enforcer. The court slapped Hibaya with a fine of P300 for not wearing a safety helmet and sentenced him with an imprisonment of two months and a fine of P500 for resisting and disobeying a traffic enforcer.
On June 6, 2004 at about 4:50 p.m. near the Super Metro in Mandaue, Tedman traffic enforcer Roden Flores stopped Hibaya, who was driving a motorcycle with a woman passenger. Both didn’t wear the required safety helmet.
Hibaya initially refused to hand his driver’s license when Flores asked for it and instead arrogantly showed his Philippine National Police ID. He however gave in after the traffic enforcer insisted that he hand over the license. Flores then issued the citation ticket for violation of City Ordinance No. 09-2001-8048-8-02.
Hibaya refused to sign the ticket and instead threw it back to Flores. Angered by the apprehension, Hibaya later wrote to Sun Star’s Speak Out section calling Flores old and disrespectful. Mabanto, who sits as chairman of the Tedman Board on behalf of Mayor Teddy Ouano then answered Hibaya’s accusation.
Hibaya, even if he knew that driving a motorcycle without a safety helmet is an offense, still did so probably thinking that as a police officer he could bully traffic enforcers. But he should have acted as role model for other drivers. With what he did, I am not surprised if other drivers violate traffic laws, rules and regulations even right under the nose of a traffic enforcer.
Meanwhile, the main reason why traffic in Metro Cebu is not orderly is because most drivers, particularly those driving public utility vehicles, are undisciplined. They blatantly disobey traffic laws, rules and regulations.
And the very cause of the lack of discipline among the public utility vehicle drivers is their utter lack of knowledge of traffic laws and rules and lack of appropriate training. This boils down again to the manner the driver’s license is issued. While the Land Transportation Office (LTO) already upgraded its system, fixers still manage to get licenses for those that are unfit to drive.
A public utility jeepney driver I interviewed once frankly told me he got a driver’s license without taking the required exams. What he did was pay the amount the fixer demanded from him.
It appears now that efforts of our friend, LTO 7 Regional Director Alex Leyson, to weed out fixers from his office still leaves much to be desired. This means additional effort for Leyson this year.
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (January 19, 2006 issue)
Write letter to the editor.Click here.
Join the Sun.Star message board.Click here. |
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