With so much on-the-road drama happening these days, it’s quite surprising that TV networks have not yet come up with a traffic-based telenovela.
Then again, no telenovela could ever top the strange and sometimes ridiculous — or violent — things that happen on Philippine roads.
Take what happened last week to Kheo Avejar and his colleagues.
They were all in a van — with their sales manager on the driver’s seat — passing near SM City Molino in Bacoor, Cavite ,when they got flagged down by a group of traffic enforcers.
Avejar uploaded a video of the tense encounter on his Facebook page at 5:41pm on Fri, Feb 5.
According to Avejar, the sales manager (whom he didn’t name in his Facebook post accompanying the video) refused the traffic enforcer’s order for him to get down from the vehicle. They had an argument and the traffic enforcer called three of his colleagues others to intervene.
Avejar quoted the sales manager, who told the man who seemed to be the higher ranking traffic enforcer, “Chief, pasensya na kayo chief. Wala akong violation, hindi ko alam ko kung bakit ako pinapara. Pasensya na po kayo pero sobra ang ginagawa sa akin, harassment na ito. (Chief, I beg your pardon, chief. I didn’t commit any violation, so I don’t know why I got flagged down. You must forgive me, but what was being done to me was too much.)”
By this time, the other traffic enforcers had joined in on the encounter. The sales manager remained in the vehicle despite the enforcers repeatedly telling him to alight from the vehicle.
The video, which was also uploaded on YouTube by a user named Michael Gierza, is over 14 minutes long. At the 5:30 mark things get even more heated. Moments later, the sound of a taser is heard. It is followed by screams.
Aside from Avejar and the sales manager, there were two other helpers in the van. We only know that the driver was hit by the taser. We don’t know if the other van riders were also hurt.
“Bacoor City Mayor Strike Revilla said on Sunday, February 7, that the traffic enforcers have been suspended pending investigation on the incident,” reports ABS-CBN News.
In his statement, Revilla promised, “Makakaasa po kayo na ang pangyayaring ito ay idadaan sa tama at legal na proseso at imbestigasyon upang maging patas sa lahat. (Rest assured that this incident will be subjected to the legal process and investigation so it will be fair to everyone.)”
The report noted: “The mayor also said all members of the Bacoor Traffic Management Department (BTMD) undergo regular physical, medical and drug tests. He also urged the driver of the van to file a complaint against the enforcers who allegedly accosted them. Revilla stressed that the city government and the BTMD do not tolerate corrupt behavior in its traffic enforcers.”
“Ang pamunuan ng BTMD at si Mayor Strike B. Revilla ay hindi kinukunsinti ang anumang tiwali at maling gawain ng mga traffic enforcers sa Bacoor,” he said.
