With the No Contact Apprehension Policy or NCAP now a grave concern among local motorists, various sectors and groups are questioning the implementation and guidelines of this new law which has left various local government units scrambling to implement their own respective versions in their respective cities and municipalities throughout the nation’s capital and eventually, nationwide. Such is the seriousness of this matter that the Land Transportation Office is even urging the LGUs to postpone the NCAP implementation.
Issues such as poor or erroneous vehicle identification, avoiding road hazards and debris, and proper protocol when merging to turn, and thus momentarily placing your vehicle to a bicycle lane at times, are some of the most common reasons people wrongly feel they were meted out a hefty penalty. Contesting the violation is no easy matter either. The few who have gone through the trouble of contesting it say it was a huge waste of time, that the people in charge are unreasonable and uncooperative, and in the end, came out even more stressed due to the frustration and feeling of despair, not to mention paying hefty penalties anyway, plus wasting a few hours of their precious time. As some who have experienced contesting their violations say, NCAP has taken a new meaning: Nasa Camera Ang Pera or The Money is in the Camera, referring to what has become a now lucrative income- generating scheme of the LGUs.
It is definitely an added burden to the already difficult cost of living in the country, with inflation, the rise in pump fuel prices since the pandemic, plus the increase in the prices of basic goods and services as a whole, not to mention the dangers (and potential health-related costs) presented by COVID, and now Monkeypox as a possible new pandemic, if left unchecked. It seems the local government want their money back ASAP, in creative ways, after handing out financial assistance to its citizens.
Of course the spirit of NCAP is noble: minimize human interaction to limit potential avenues of graft and corruption, force motorists to be more disciplined rather than be hit with a massive penalty, and possibly have their license suspended. But this is the Philippines after all, and as with most laws, the intent is always good and noble, but implementation is absurdly and grossly done, it is comical and defies basic human logic. Common sense is short in government, it seems.
So, up in arms, the people have started discussing: if we can’t reason with the law, and the system is flawed, what can we do to protect ourselves? The answer is obvious: beat the system. People are now discussing ways to hide the identity of their cars by a variety of creative ways: removing license plates, installing fake plates, or adding tinted plastic covers or other accessories previously banned by law enforcement agencies that will obscure the license plates of the said vehicles. An absence, or at least a bare minimum of on-the-ground law-enforcement officers means they cannot be caught, apprehended or fined due to the heavy reliance on the various cameras of NCAP, and the people behind the screens monitoring these cameras, whose training and qualifications are already being also questioned, as to whether they are competent and professional enough to actually perform their jobs.
This means more chaos and disorder, and law-breakers on the road, NCAP being completely blind-sided by this reality. Of course LGUs can deploy more agents on the ground to help capture these erring motorists, but doesn’t that bring us all back to square one?
The implementation of NCAP needs to be suspended, a serious rethink needed, and better-coordinated with all pertinent government agencies, with a standardized protocol and implementing rules and regulations for all cities and municipalities, balanced by actual traffic enforcers on-sight. The people manning the monitors also need proper training on vehicle identification, which is something easily provided by the private sector (through the Chamber of Automotive Manufacturers in the Philippines perhaps, or CAMPI) in properly identifying all various makes and models of cars.
There is still hope for NCAP. And I personally want it to succeed precisely because it is efficient, helps stem corruption, and will finally force Filipinos to seriously observe all road rules and regulations after decades of neglect and abuse. But we all need to be patient, reasonable, and crucially, work together to make it work.
