Street (in)justice

INDISCRIMINATE impounding of vehicles continue in Metro Manila streets.

San Juan is a small but close-knit community. Although I don’t live in San Juan myself (I’m from Mandaluyong), almost every place where I hang out is in San Juan: I go to a lot of car shops and car washes in the area, I visit friends based there, and with the missus, we eat in a lot of cafes, coffee shops and restaurants there.

It helps that I know or have met many of the political leaders from San Juan: Sen. JV Ejercito is a car guy, too, yet you would see him jogging, biking and meeting up with people from all over there.

I knew Vice Mayor Francis “Zam” Zamora since when we were kids (he’s a really good ball player), and the local barangay leaders (my fellow Top Gear editor Beeboy Bargas is a barangay official of San Juan).

And when Xavier and ICA dismiss school, I’m pretty much stuck in the traffic caused by them, which is all good.

So despite not being a San Jaun resident myself, somehow I’d think of myself as an honorary San Juan resident. We’re friendly with each other, we feel face, and we feel a sense of loyalty, support and respect for one another.

One of my friends is Wesley Tsai. Wes owns a construction depot/hardware along Boni Serrano/Santolan Road, one of the busiest major thoroughfares in the small city of San Juan.

On the side, he brings in car parts and accessories, too, as he’s the Philippine dealer for AFE intakes and exhausts, and InCurve wheels from the United States.

I buy both car parts from him as well as construction stuff when I do simple repairs and maintenance at home.

Wes and I are good chums: We share a laugh, talk cars and business, and of course hang out, as most car guys do, in the tight-knit community that is San Juan.

Last Saturday, Wes and I met at Club Silvia Philippine’s 10th anniversary celebration at Yellow Cab Pizza in Greenhills. This was when he mentioned his unfortunate incident.

Last Thursday afternoon, Wes’ own delivery truck was moved outside his garage and parked along Boni Serrano/Santolan Road as an even bigger truck was entering his garage to make a delivery. Admittedly, his truck was parked on the public road, but his staff and driver were outside minding the vehicle. Traffic wasn’t heavy yet, and they were expecting the larger delivery truck to exit soon and their own truck, a Suzuki multicab with plate number GLY-128, to enter the garage thereafter.

However, a tow truck from Fighter Trucking and Towing Services (No. 12) suddenly pulled up from behind Wes’ delivery truck.

The crew jumped out of the tow truck, and one of them jumped into Wes’ truck like a thief to commandeer the vehicle and allow the tow truck to pull it.

Wesley’s staff were surprised, and thus approached the crew to ask them what they were doing. The tow truck crew ignored them, and a guy in a blue shirt by the name of Robe Gurango wrote a violation report and handed it to Wesley’s staff and left with the Suzuki multicab.

Researching online, Fighter Trucking and Towing Services is one of the towing companies suspended by Metropolitan Manila Development Authority Chair Francis Tolentino for a variety of complaints and violations regarding imprudence/negligent acts, as contained in a news clipping published on the MMDA’s website dated Feb. 23, 2015. (Here’s the link: www.mmda.gov.ph/index.php/35-news/news-2015/1517-tolentino-suspends-towing-companies.)

There’s already history of Fighter Trucking and Towing Services’ negligent acts of towing. Frankly, I was shocked at the manner by which the tow truck crew jumped into the vehicle. And this was what prompted me to write about the incident.

Does Fighter Trucking and Towing Service hire people of questionable background for its crew? The speed, the manner and the ease of what they did is really shocking.

If such a thing happened to me, I’d probably shoot them all, simply out of shock and, of course, for invasion of private property.

Wes readily admitted that his delivery truck was parked on the street, and he will gladly pay the necessary fine for illegal double parking.

But the manner by which Fighter Trucking and Towing Services and its crew, headed by Gurango, performed the towing is downright criminal, from entering the vehicle like a thief and swiftly commandeering the vehicle.

Do we want such people working for the government? I know we have crooks, thieves and robbers at the highest offices in government, but do we want to fill up the ranks completely with such people?

I appeal to San Juan Mayor Guia Gomez, Vice Mayor Francis Zamora, the Sangguniang Bayan of San Juan, and of course, the various barangay officials to look into this incident.

I also appeal to Sen. JV Ejercito, one of the nicest, warmest and better educated senators, as well as Sen. Grace Poe, who held a Senate inquiry/hearing on illegal towing activities earlier this year.

I also appeal to MMDA chair Tolentino. Sir, Edsa traffic management has been unburdened from you. It’s time to look into other aspects, into other areas of your responsibility.

This incident itself is not unique; this case is repeated many times over in the course of a single day.

Many San Juan residents feel hopeless about this situation but have no means to voice out or vent their frustration over this.

This is not the sort of public service we should expect, especially in this tight-knit community of San Juan. I’m also certain that this incident isn’t exclusive to San Juan; all other cities and municipalities in Metro Manila have similar issues.

For Wesley, his biggest frustration is that there’s a car shop up the road that has its vehicles parked on the road as well. Wes says he feels no prejudice towards the car shop and the cars parked on the road, but in the interest of fairness and blind justice, why did Fighter Trucking and Towing Service not tow these other vehicles? Why was he singled out?

The vehicles parked on the road, according to Wes, have been there longer than his own delivery truck, which was parked only for a few minutes on the road, and minded by his staff.

Did Fighter Trucking and Towing Service smell quick and easy money from a humble businessman who is doing honest work, just because the vehicle in question was a lowly, old delivery truck instead of some fancy luxury car?

In the end, yes, Wesley’s vehicle was parked on the road, illegally. That isn’t the issue. The issue is the highly questionable manner by which Fighter Trucking and Towing Services performed the deed.

If we can provide decency by way of basic human rights in dealing with drug lords, rapists, kidnappers, thieves and all other criminals, why can’t the government deal with honest, tax-paying constituents with the same equal measure of decency and respect?