Traffic Ticket and Sprained Ankle, all in one day
On Tuesday, February 19, 2007, I got my first driving ticket in The Philippines for going the wrong way down a one-way street. While in American, this would seem pretty stupid as one-way streets are pretty clearly marked with large ONE-WAY arrow signs, the same is not true here and you see cars, scooters and jeepneys going the wrong way down one-way streets all the time. In fact, the street I went the wrong way on was Corrales Street. It is a two-way street all along its length except for one block, right in front of Xavier University. I had stopped by the Divisoria Dunkin Donuts shop to visit with the owner briefly, and then I needed to go a couple of blocks to the South and just didn’t think about that one block being one-way. There’s no sign of any significance.
The reason I was on the scooter rather than my Isuzu Vehicross was because that very day I had taken my VX to Great White Auto shop for routine maintenance. I wanted the new brake pads, a change of oil, a new fan belt, the tires rotated, the car alarm re-affixed to the interior, the steering wheel adjusted so it was level when driving straight, new windshield wipers, and a couple of other things. Great White has always treated me well and I just gave them a list of things to do and told them I’d be back two days later to pick it up, so they wouldn’t feel any hurry. And you can’t beat the price. (Great White is for sale if anyone is interested in buying an established and well-respected auto-repair shop in Cagayan de Oro. The owner, Jomar Manubag, is just finishing up nursing school and is expecting to migrate to the USA in a few months and wants to sell the place. He’s asking PHP 2.5M, and the place is on a couple of hectares of rented land at PHP 15K per month.)
An RTA officer saw me make the turn and waved me to the side of the road and then called a uniformed PNP officer over to issue the citation to me. The next day I went to the RTA office to pay the ticket. It cost me PHP 100 (about $2.40). I don’t think any points were accessed against my license, like they would have been in America, and my insurance rates won’t go up as a result thereof, which would have been my biggest worry in America. A ticket like that might make your insurance rates go up $200 or so per year.
What I was surprised to hear was that if I had offered the PNP officer 50 pesos to forget about the whole thing he probably would have, but, I, not being Filipino, am not used to bribery of public servants and it just wouldn’t have seemed natural for me. In America, you try to bribe a cop and you are in serious trouble. Plus, I respect men in uniform. They are there to protect and serve the public.
Later that evening, while it was raining, I was leaving Maxi’s and my scooter was parked on a bit of a slope. I backed it up just by releasing the brake and letting it roll down the hill and then turned the handlebars and hit the front brake at the same time and the front tire locked up on me, spilling me to the right, with the foot-peg coming down on my foot just below my ankle. Sakit! I’ll be limping for days. Soaking my foot in a bucket of ice water makes it feel better and brings the swelling down.
I had my wife buy a walking cane for me, but when I tried it, it bent so much that I was afraid to use it. “How much for this cane?” I asked her. “100 pesos” (about $2.40 USD) she replied. Did they have any better ones? Yes, but they were 500 pesos. Somethings you just can’t skimp on and for an American just over 100 kg, a walking cane is not one of them. This one will see use only as a house decoration.