Riding a PUJ in southern Iloilo is a leap of faith. You place your life in the hands of the person behind the wheels presuming he/she is skilled and will bring you whole to our destination.

That doesn’t always happen. Almost every day, we hear news of accidents involving public vehicles, especially, jeepneys plying the southern Iloilo route.

Chances are, you could be entrusting your life to semi-literates who can’t read or, worse, refuse to obey traffic signs. They treat the road as a race track forgetting the immense responsibility to transport their passengers and cargoes safely to their destination.

On that regard, jeepneys from the towns of San Joaquin, Miag-ao, Igbaras and Tubungan stand out as the most notorious in recklessness. Guimbal, Oton and Tigbauan, too, have dimwitted drivers, but in the main, their jeepneys are known for their moderate speed that explains why their units are less involved in accidents.

Last October 31 late afternoon, we took a ride from the Terminal Market, Iloilo City to Igbaras. We were unfortunate to have a hunky but nitwit of a driver who thought he owned the road and did not bother to observe traffic safety.

A continuous yellow line in the middle of the road warns and tells the driver not to speed or overtake other vehicles, and may cross lane with extreme caution. You can find that on slight curves.

Double and continuous yellow lines warn against counter-flowing or overtaking other vehicles at all times. You can find this marking on sharp curves or on bridges. One is not supposed to counter-flow in sharp curves or on bridges for a simple reason – safety. You don’t see an approaching vehicle in a sharp curve or on bridges. In case you defy that and another vehicle from the opposite lane is hurtling toward you, it would already be too late to return to retreat or swerve.

Our semi-literate driver freely counter-flowed at dizzying speed in curves marked by continuous yellow lines. He nary realized that there was limit to the patience of his passengers. When he over-sped and overtook vehicles right on top of the bridge at Barroc, Tigbauan, Iloilo, two or three passengers shouted at him to slow down while another angrily lectured him on the meaning of yellow lines in curves and bridges.

Unlike that in northern Iloilo (Leganes to Roxas City, Capiz) or the “central line” (Pavia to Bingawan) or the northeastern route (Leganes to Carles), the southern Iloilo route are narrow and riddled with curves. It doesn’t have a straight segment spanning more than five kilometers. At best, the only straight segment that stretches for almost two kilometers is from Oton Poblacion to Brgy. Trapeche.

Reckless driving in southern Iloilo also puts to risk the lives and limbs of pedestrians. The southern Iloilo road is thickly populated unlike that of the other routes where you can drive for kilometers without seeing a house on the roadside.

The Land Transportation Office (LTO) and the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) have the mandates to regulate motor vehicles, owners/operators and drivers.

The state of the public transport in southern Iloilo is an accident waiting to happen. These two offices – the LTO and LTFRB – should act now before it’s too late.

But it appears making public transport safe for commuters and pedestrians seems to be the last in the priority list of these two regulatory bodies.

The LTO and LTFRB are more interested in jacking up and collecting fees and penalties and even bleeding taxi operators dry by requiring them to install at digital metering device that issues tape receipts costing P18,000 each. A violation penalized by only P300 before now makes drivers/operators poorer by P3,000.

One official of the LTO, for instance is busier running a smoke emission testing facility than teaching drivers and operators to hold public safety as premier duty.

3 Responses to “Reckless drivers”

• 1
  Taga Guimbal
  November 22nd, 2009 18:58

  Pet,
  One reason I hate working in the city is because I have to take a jeepney ride.
  However, to call these kind of drivers “semi-literates” and “dimwitted” implies that they are somehow literate and may have wits after all. You compliment them too much.
  Me, I just take the bus, no matter how late for work I will be. Maybe it’s an ingenious way of buying peace.
  LTFRB has granted franchises with reckless abandon. That’s the root of all recklessness. Gone are the days when you have to prove your franchise application fits into the scheme of things. During the heydays of Atty., thirty three thousand reasons can justify any franchise application.
  That explains where we find ourselves now– in the middle of the yellow line.
  Only in the Philippines!!!
• 2
  pet melliza
  November 22nd, 2009 22:35

  taga guimbal,
  hahaha! do i know you?
  i am using my real name.
  you and i must have known each other. give me time to know you.
  in the local press, one’s writing style is a thumbmark.
  anyway, keep up.
• 3
  Taga Guimbal
  November 23rd, 2009 08:31

  Pet,

  I doubt if you know me personally. I’m not a member of the press, either.
  You see, impunity based on facts appeal to me. It’s a tough job but the other option is licentiousness. One has to choose.
  Keep ‘em coming.
  More power.

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