VLOGGER and transport evangelist James Deakin stirred a hornet’s nest within the Land Transportation Office (LTO) early this month when he complained not about the traffic violation of his 19-year-old son for “reckless driving,” but the red tape he experienced in paying the fine and retrieving his son’s driver’s license. His other grievance centered on the unreasonably short period — a mere 15 calendar days, not working days — given to contest the traffic ticket. Since the period fell during the holidays, their protest expired. Deakin was also furious when his son’s license was not returned since the car used did not have a copy of an original registration (OR) or certificate of registration (CR) with it.
The case of Deakin’s son is not exceptional in the Philippines. Thousands of Filipinos have to struggle with and survive the harshness of the bureaucracy that imposes the rule of law, regardless of logic, context and common sense. Bureaucrats are frequently mere automatons who enforce policies unless decision-makers rewrite them or redirect that the law be bent in favor of the influential. In Deakin’s case, despite his social media clout, he failed to decipher the undercurrents within the bureaucracy and managed to step on the wrong toes in the LTO.
The machine-like bureaucracy is characterized as heartless, especially to the poor. Deakin, however, belongs to the upper-middle class, yet he is clueless of how things actually work in the bureaucracy. Indeed, his son broke traffic laws when he overtook a queue of cars exiting the Skyway northbound to Quezon Avenue, crossing a hard yellow line and doing so in full view of traffic enforcers. Most VIP convoys of government officials and top businessmen do this regularly with impunity across Metro Manila. Even government ambulances, with their irritating sirens blaring, recklessly overtake or counterflow vehicles despite having no patients onboard. But Deakin apparently forgot a basic rule in the bureaucracy: do not cross the powers-that-be.
I am a father myself, and I commiserate with Deakin’s situation. I, too, have gone the extra mile to exculpate my son during his younger years from his scrapes with traffic enforcers. And he had plenty of them, from fights with delivery drivers to ramming my car through steel barriers in Bonifacio Global City. The only time I was able to make a lesson stick to my son was when I let him stay in a police precinct for several hours and answer the charges himself. Perhaps, the best approach to parenting is tough love.
There must never be an excuse to drive recklessly and cause harm or deaths to innocent victims. We have seen this repeatedly on our major roads. The rule of law has long been undermined by weak enforcement and corruption among traffic authorities. In the United States and Europe, extreme penalties are imposed on reckless drivers, especially when fatalities occur, ranging from license confiscation and suspension to probation and lengthy prison terms. In the Philippines, we have long tolerated reckless drivers and their culture of impunity, from road rage, cargo trucks to zigzagging delivery motorcycles, and even abusive police motorists.
Unfortunately, Deakin’s son has become the poster boy for reckless driving. This, however, doesn’t absolve the LTO for giving Deakin the runaround in paying the fine and recovering his son’s license. The P2,000 fine itself is already prohibitive for an ordinary wage earner. But withholding the license due to an unwritten requirement for an OR/CR only rubbed salt on the wound. Most bureaucrats don’t feel the anguish of ordinary people who must take a leave or take time out from their busy schedule to transact in government offices. Red tape routinely trumps citizens’ convenience. Aside from the financial burden, the bureaucrats arbitrarily impose new requirements not found in the existing rules.
The rule of law and citizens’ convenience should never be mutually exclusive. If the written policies are clear, they must be implemented with consistency, efficiency and consideration for public service. Yet, more often than not, we confront the overeager behavior in the bureaucracy where rules meant to improve lives become instruments of abuse and torment. The bureaucrat shows little empathy; his or her goal is to complete the task within his or her paycheck and go home safely to his or her family. I have seen this dysfunction firsthand — in paying travel tax during holidays, waiting for my relatives’ “balikbayan” boxes, or filing for a business permit. Ease of doing business is rarely top of mind among bureaucrats, and more emphasis is placed on rules and regulations. And so citizens often ask: must convenience be always sacrificed at the altar of the rule of law?
And this unresolved contradiction — rule of law and citizens’ convenience — is what keeps the Philippines from becoming a progressive and prosperous nation.