My First brush With A Filipino Law Enforcer

Enforcer - in the Philippines they are a person employed by the state to enforce the local laws. In most other countries they would be called a policeman.

Like in most developing (3rd World) countries they are severely underpaid and have a strong incentive to subsidize their meager pay at every opportunity.

Last week I took a friend to the airport for an early flight ... very early, as we dropped him off at about 04:15. The airport at this time was hectic with taxis and departing passengers everywhere. So as we left the airport area we were in a stream of traffic ... made up mainly of taxis.

One fantastic feature of Mactan island, which derives a large proportion of income from foreign holiday makers, is that they either don't have too many road signs, or they are so old and faded you can't read them, or they are "disguised" by a myriad of other signs or overgrown foliage. This guarantees that the odds are well stacked against you as a foreigner. The chances are stacked that at some time you are going to transgress (or violate) some traffic law.

This is compounded by another two factors. The first is that the laws for locals are different from those for foreigners ... so don't use a local as the basis for application of a law. The second is that as a foreigner you are a target. Immediately identified as an easy mark.

You don't know or understand the law and when you are stopped there is a veiled threat that the legal process to pay the fine and collect your confiscated license will be very inconvenient and time consuming. So if you are on holiday, where are you going to find the place where you have been told they will be taking your license? How much will it cost to get there? How long will it take to pay the fine?

So there is a very, very strong incentive to finalize the minor "violation" as quickly as possible. This is done by means of a negotiated "spot fine". There is no receipt and the matter is over.

As we left the airport I was in a stream of taxis and didn't notice that there was a feint sign at the beginning of some concrete bollards indicating that I was in the "taxi" lane and I should have been in the other lane. I wasn't concerned as it seemed to be inconsequential. Not true.

As I lowered the window the enforcer requested my license and after taking it and studying it and me, advised me that I had violated some traffic law. So what now. I was holding up a long stream of taxis so was instructed to pull over to the side of the road. My mind immediately went into 3rd world negotiating mode.

As he sauntered (in a manner which traffic police internationally have perfected) across to the car he was fingering his ticketing book. However 3rd world police are very easy to read. They don't start writing the ticket but start telling you about the consequences if they start writing as they flip the pages of the book.

What follows is a short and sweet negotiation. You handing over of a small amount of money for the "spot fine", your licence being handed back and both of you going on your way as if nothing happened.

However that is not quite the end for me. I have now vowed that I'll never again be part of this problem.

Corruption requires cooperation - there are two parties who must agree to be dishonest ... I'm not going to be one of them.

Driving in Cebu

The traffic here is hectic!!! And I really mean hectic as it makes its way like a river in flood drifting from one side of the road to the other.

The roads are narrow and filled with tricycles (this picture is a good example of how to fit at least 6 people onto a stuffed out, small motorbike with a tiny side car), motor bikes (mostly small but driven like Citi Golf's at home winding in and out of the traffic) noisy with little power, but when everyone else is only doing 30 kph even a bicycle looks like a performance machine, bicycles (varying from BMX's to delivery bikes) and a stream of pedestrians.

In this context I decided to have my first outing early on a Sunday morning. As we headed out at just after six thirty I realised that these people don't sleep. The basketball courts were full and there were a number of people who appeared to be out shopping.

The first kilometre or so wasn't too bad and then we hit the highway. Dispel every thought you have of a highway. This highway is a narrow (just wide enough to get two cars through) strip of concrete which would be the standard road in some remote suburb. Things were going okay and then we hit the rebuilding of the road.

The new section is a concrete road being built about 20 to 30 centimetres above the existing decaying track. The challenge was now to make the transition from the low road to the high road. I've always had a problem driving a left hand drive car as I've found it difficult to judge exactly where the right front ends. Needless to say I failed perfection with my first attempt and the temporary sign was hit with a solid thump.

Fortunately modern wing mirrors are designed for these situations and it folded neatly against the side of the car. As I flusteredly pressed the various buttons the windows opened and now I was forced to pull up and sort out the various problems. It wasn't long and we were on our way.

The next major obstacle was the left turn in the direction of where we live. Firstly the landmark (the old bridge to Cebu) was on the right so I nearly didn't make it. And then as I swerved across the face of the oncoming motorbikes I realise I was in the wrong gear. At that moment I realised that people who normally drive right handed automatic cars should never convert to left handed manual cars. Too late.

As we lurched through the intersection I was grateful that the drivers here are used to slamming on brakes and swerving so we got through there without a scratch. It should have been plain sailing from there but very close to home there is a large Catholic church. The service had just ended and there were tricycles scattered all over the road collecting church goers.

There was a gap, iI think it was enough, but if the persistent bangs on the back window were an indicator ... it probably wasn't!! Anyway we slowly edged through and in a couple of hundred metres we were home.

Whew!! It was like being a learner driver all over again.

My First Impressions of the Philippines

It's a paradox. The roads are hectic (very) with places like the malls, and our gated estate relatively serene and calm. There are the wealthy and the poor living side by side. The roads are lined with small businesses (probably as a result that there are no government handouts for babies or unemployment) and we work in an Economic tax free zone with large national and multinational companies.

But it’s certainly fascinating and I've no doubt it will grow on me.

It's hard to believe that we've only been here for a week and that this time last week were arriving from the South Coast. It is certainly different from there.

Fortunately I've got a driver who drives me to and from work … and will continue for a while (a long while?). However I work quite close to home so should manage that trip in the next few weeks, make that months? On Saturday he drove us around Cebu and Mandaue City and we went to the Mactan shrine (the spot where Magellan was killed on his round the world trip), Ayala Mall (pretty upmarket!) and then to lunch at a floating restaurant in Cordova (which is right next to Mactan but is actually a separate island). Finally he took us to do our grocery shopping.

To give you some idea of the traffic congestion – it takes about half an hour to and back from work …. for about 4 k’s. And although cars, bikes, motor cycles and bikes (together with the odd pedestrian) weave their way along there is no angst. Everyone just accepts it and moves along.

We live in a gated, secure complex alongside pretty poor houses (shacks), spaza shops and little businesses. It’s a great experience and the people are very friendly. Carol has a maid (Emily who is more like a companion) and already they have taken tricycles (3 wheel motorbikes that carry up to 5 or 6 passengers at real squeeze!!) and Jeepneys all over town. You can forget about any arby health and safety rules here with whole families cruising around on a motorbike with no crash helmets Emily is going to come and pick us up on Saturday and take us to her home (it'll be my first experience of the public transport system). 

Our factory is superb (in some places virtually like a laboratory) and the quality of the products outstanding … unfortunately often after a number of attempts!

So after an initial shock I'm taking it all in and I think that it'll be a challenging work experience and great to be in an economy which is now growing at a rate faster than China's. 

There is certainly a lot of need for infrastructural spending on roads, sewerage systems, electricity, rubbish collecting, etc. While they continue to sort out corruption. The one good thing is that this has started at the top with a new Prime Minister.

Booze prices especially wine are quite steep but everything else compares or is a bit cheaper than at home.

At the moment we are having our first tropical storm and it’s thumping down. I just hope that the shacks here are built a bit better than the ones at home.

It's the start of my worldwide gypsy experience until I can't do it any more.