The Carabuena Syndrome
JOJO ROBLES
CALL it the Carabuena Syndrome: The belief that if you bully an unarmed, low-paid enforcer who accosts you on the road, you’ll probably escape the charges and penalties that you so richly deserve for flouting traffic laws.
The latest documented incident of the syndrome took place outside ritzy Magallanes Village in Makati, where a rich guy named Arnold Padilla, his partner and his bodyguards manhandled a bunch of barangay enforcers who impeded the progress of his pricey black Mercedes Benz sedan after the car and its backup SUV beat a red light on the northbound lane of Edsa. After Padilla, his woman and his goons rained blows on the enforcers, they simply got back inside their cars and sped off.
Padilla’s anti-authority stunt came on the heels of a similar incident involving a husband-and-wife tandem of government prosecutors named Mark and Christine Estepa, who harangued and bamboozled their way out of a P200 illegal parking ticket — and immediately got inducted into the Road Rage Hall of Shame. The viral video immortalized prosecutor Christine’s demand for enforcers of the Metro Manila Development Authority to show her that she had spent the required 5 minutes after being informed of her violation without moving on — and in the process wasted countless more minutes of the online time of millions of social media denizens who clucked in unanimous dismay and outrage at the roadside atrocity.
More than anything, the two incidents highlighted the arrogance of people with money and authority, when it comes to dealing with those below their social class, never mind if they are wearing official uniforms and just doing their job. And the tendency of our equally status-conscious authorities to quail in the face of such obvious and blatantly displayed power and wealth.
In our supposedly egalitarian but, in reality, highly stratified society, such incidents are more the rule than the exception — and not just on the road. And this is why the rule of law is still a foreign concept to Filipinos, who immediately and routinely rank people according to their outward trappings of wealth, importance and position.
Nowhere is this more apparent in the case of the Estepas than in the initial and heavy-handed attempt at self-censorship, online and in traditional media, that called for the blurring of the faces of the two prosecutors and the withholding of their names. Was there a conspiracy to conceal the couple’s identities and even the license plates of their Hyundai van because they were in a position to strike back at those who divulged this information, since they were state prosecutors?
Contrast the concealment of the Estepas’ identities with the immediate revelation of the name of the woman who was involved in a similar altercation with MMDA enforcers recently. The woman who was riding with her husband in a motorcycle and who threw a fit after they were stopped because she was not wearing the crash helmet that she had with her was immediately “outed” as a call center agent — a job she had to quit because of the shame she allegedly caused to the company that she worked for.
Even Padilla, the Benz-riding big shot, was quickly named by the Magallanes barangay enforcers, who knew him as a resident of the gated village with a propensity for breaking traffic laws. Padilla may rate bodyguards and a goon squad in a backup SUV, but he was still just a civilian with no real power to get back at his accusers, thus ranking a bit lower than the relatively poorer prosecutors.
This was the same misfortune of Robert Carabuena, the cigarette company executive who mauled an enforcer for stopping him for an alleged violation and after whom I have decided to name this phenomenon. Wealth is important, but government position trumps money in the scale of socioeconomic stratification on the road.
And let’s not forget that MMDA enforcers and traffic cops are equally guilty here, as well. They routinely look down on motorcycle riders, bus and jeepney drivers and other motorists whom they consider to be without any means of protesting and contesting their often arbitrary apprehensions, and come down hard on these less-fortunate road users with the gusto they should be displaying when enforcing the law on everyone.
If our enforcers didn’t factor in the price of the vehicle, the appearance of the driver and even his or her familiarity with the law or the English language, the Carabuena Syndrome could be stamped out. If the people in charge of putting order in our streets courteously but firmly do their job without considering the status and circumstances of road users, the chaos on the streets will be remedied.
Some people continue to wonder why the same Filipino drivers who can berate, browbeat and beat up traffic enforcers in Metro Manila even if they are clearly in violation of the law, follow all the rules when they drive abroad and even in places like the Subic Bay Freeport. They fail to realize that the reason for this Jekyll-and-Hyde nature of the Filipino motorist is the fungible enforcement of traffic laws here and the certainty of punishment in other places.
If erring motorists are made to realize that violating the law will lead to penalties and even jail time, as sure as night follows day, then they will follow the rules. But if they know that they can talk, bully and punch their way out of a traffic fine or ticket, they will do that, as well.
And every time a traffic enforcer looks the other way when a person who looks like he has an important position and drives an expensive vehicle cuts a corner, beats a red light or parks illegally, he becomes part of the problem of our chaotic traffic situation. Worse, if that enforcer harasses poor drivers in a motorcycle or a PUV and even forces them to cough up cash in order to get off scot-free, he gains automatic entry into the long-entrenched syndicate of lawlessness and corruption on our streets.
The Carabuena Syndrome is not incurable, even if it sometimes looks that way. But treatment has to start now.
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