Why are Filipinos such bad drivers?
Is it just ignorance of the rules, or is it something deeper?
V VERNON B. SARNE
OCTOBER 21, 2017 77,512 VIEWS
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Why can't we respect something as simple and universal as the yellow box? ILLUSTRATION BY MARCO RIVERA
Are we bad people because we're bad drivers, or are we bad drivers because we're bad people to begin with?
Filipinos are generally bad drivers—that much is a given. By bad, I do not mean ignorant, though our roads certainly have a healthy supply of morons. By bad, I mean disorderly and discourteous. We beat the red light, and not because we do not know what the red light means. We beat it because we don't give a hoot. We leave our cars in no-parking areas, and not because we do not understand the sign that says parking is illegal. We do it because we couldn't care less.
We drive the way we do because our moral fiber is so corrupt that being rude and defiant has become our way of life. Let me repeat: The Filipino is so hopelessly wretched that doing the opposite of right and proper has become second nature, and it shows in our driving. We do not become bad people only when we're behind a steering wheel; we're already rotten away from it.