A snappy salute

By Egay Uy

MARK Langam’s life was unnecessarily wasted. He was not doing the right thing yet he lost his life to a dastardly act of an assailant. He was a part of the attempt to make road users’ lives easy and comfortable. Yes, he practically sacrificed his life for a mission he may have unwittingly carried on his shoulders.

To make matters worse, his father Amado, 61, reportedly succumb to cardiac arrest. Whatever iota of conscience the assailant may still have left in him, I could only hope he will be haunted by this for the rest of his short life.

Rest in peace, Mark.

You will be joined in heaven by the late Cris “Saigon Kick” Cabingas, another RTA employee who also unnecessarily gave us his life for the ease and comfort of road users.

A snappy salute to both of you!

***

There ought to be a thorough review of the procedures on how violators of traffic laws, rules, and regulations are brought to court should they fail to settle the administrative fine corresponding to their violations. As we already know, settlement may either be by paying the fine or by rendering community service.

If after 72 hours, the apprehended person fails to settle the infraction administratively, a case will be filed against him before the city prosecutor’s office that will handle the case at the city court.

During my stint in the traffic office, I attempted to redo the processes of the case filing unit of the traffic office only to be met with strong objections by the old guns who were used to doing the same thing “since time immemorial.” So I let them be with a caveat that flaws in the processes could backfire.

Recently, a young professional was charged in court for allegedly parking his vehicle in what was said to be “no parking” area. The traffic code, however, does not designate the area of apprehension as a no-parking street.

Besides, the affidavit of the apprehending traffic officer distinctly avers that while the motorists were “in the act of parking his vehicle,” he was apprehended for disregarding a no-parking traffic sign.

I need not detail the facts here, but the case was dismissed by the court.  Don’t get me wrong. The exercise was not intended to jeopardize the cases filed by the RTA against traffic law violators, but to rid an unnecessary criminal record from a young professional’s life, and to emphasize that there ought to be a thorough review of how cases are filed by hard-headed old guns of the traffic office.

(Egay Uy is a lawyer. He chairs the City’s Regulatory and Complaint Board, co-chairs with the city mayor the City Price Coordinating Council, and chairs the city’s Joint Inspection Team.  He retired as a vice president of Cepalco.)