Tuesday, September 30, 2008 Speak out: Temper law with pragmatism By Ben R. Ypil Mabolo, Cebu City
LAST Wednesday, Sept. 24, at about 5:45 p.m., as we were cruising along the road in Mactan from the airport to Cebu City after our arrival from Manila, a certain PO2 Saenz flagged us down and signaled my son who was behind the wheel to pull over.
I realized then that the traffic cop was just waiting in ambush for motorists who were not wearing their seatbelts. He immediately confiscated my son’s driver’s license and issued him a citation ticket even as I pleaded with him for clemency to on avail, stressing it was his (my son’s) first traffic infraction.
I really wouldn’t mind if that over zealous cop would accost us if it were a major traffic moving violation. But why single us out among the motorists? As he was issuing us a temporary operator’s permit I called his attention to the other motorists passing us by who were not also wearing seatbelts.
If the law must be strictly enforced, then by all means let us apply it on all without exception. While I agree that the wearing of seatbelts is for our safety, this law is simply not as practicable in our city streets where the speed limit is 40-60 kph, as it is along our expressway where speed limit is 100kph.
In other words, this law on the wearing of seatbelts should be tempered with pragmatism or practical considerations along short routes even as it may be strictly enforced along expressway or major thoroughfares.
Anyway, I highly recommend this stony-hearted PO2 Saenz for reassignment to Mindanao where his expertise in waiting in ambush for unsuspecting motorists along its major highways may yet make him an unlikely hero in the capture of the elusive MILF field commanders Ameril Ombra Kato and Abdulla Macapaar.
In the meantime, I will have to find the wherewithal and cough up my hard-earned money that should have otherwise been spent for the basic needs of my family than pay for a useless traffic fine for the purported violation of a traffic rule that’s honored more in the breach than in observance by most motorists.
