Some three decades ago, I drove to the Land Transportation Office branch along EDSA, near what used to be Ramon Magsaysay High School, to take my practical driving test.
Using a second-hand 1979 Corolla SR my parents bought for me to learn the rudiments of driving, I entered the compound ready for whatever the LTO instructor might want me to do.
Watching American movies and sitcoms depict the driving exam as a highly stressful activity where you dare not make a mistake lest the instructor gives you a failing score, I brushed up on traffic signs, lane markings, right-of-way rules, and the essentials of operating a motor vehicle. I was confident I would ace this. Having driven for a while with a student permit, I could easily perform any driving task.
The LTO instructor, an old guy in his 40s, asked me if I had brought a car. “Yes, sir. It’s parked there,” I replied with confidence. And we proceeded to walk to the car. As we sat inside, his first instruction was to start the car. So I did. One-click!
He then asked me to move the car forward, “Abante mo.” So I stepped on the clutch and put the car in first gear. I gently balanced the release of the leftmost pedal with the application of the accelerator, careful not to induce a sudden jerk that might erode the confidence of the LTO instructor in my abilities.
A car’s length later, the instructor then told me to back up and park the car again. “Atras mo na,” he ordered. I got worried. Did he notice something wrong with my technique? Did he see a life-threatening maneuver in the odd three meters we crept forward? Was I not looking where I was supposed to focus on? Despite my confused state of mind, I managed to reverse back into the slot we hardly left. “Maghandbrake ka,” he commanded. And so naturally, I obeyed.
“Okay, tapos na. Sunod ka na lang sa loob,” was his next statement. Was that the practical driving test? I mean, seriously, this couldn’t be it, right? But it was.
A few minutes later, I left the compound with a plastic driver’s license in my hand. A vendor outside the building even sold me one of those red plastic license jackets that were supposed to protect the card from discoloration and damage.
That was how I passed my practical test. As an 18-year-old, I realized we’d be in deep #&%* if the LTO just “gave away” licenses to wannabe drivers.
Over the last 30 years, we have seen how our daily driving experience has deteriorated into the near-chaos it is today. Drivers with wanton disregard for the law are everywhere. You need not look far to see a counterflower, a solid white line overtaker, a U-turner in a no U-turn slot, a speed limit breaker, a last-minute lane cutter, a non-helmet-wearer, basically someone who will not follow traffic rules and regulations and could care less about them.
Such is the effect of making it “too easy” for just about any Juan to acquire a driving license. Heck, even a blind guy got one a few years back, remember?
Our roads today are full of drivers who do not obey traffic signs. They would prefer to break a rule when no one is watching. Drivers who don’t care about the safety of their passengers as long as they make it to their destinations in the quickest possible time. Drivers would bully others into submission as long as they got their way.
With theoretical exams that had stupid questions, some about the history of the LTO itself, which no one honestly cares about when driving, to practical exams that hardly tested the abilities of the drivers in the interest of expediency and making it out of the office by 5:00pm, we have seen how the LTO has had a hand in churning out unqualified drivers en masse. And en masse, our problems on the road started to sprout, as well.
The LTO, under its new chief, Jayart Tugade, has been implementing reforms in how future drivers will get their licenses. But one might be a telling omen of where we are all headed.
“Pagsusulit para sa mga kukuha ng driver’s license, paiigsiin ng LTO,” said the agency in one of its social media posts. With an exam that only covers the tip of the information iceberg every driver should know by heart, the agency said it is mulling over even shortening it even more. And to make matters worse, it is doing this to address the agency’s perennial problem with fixers. Not lessen the incidence of road accidents, not to improve the lack of discipline among motorists, and not even to reduce the incidence of stress and road rage. Just to curb the proliferation of fixers.
In a time when we need more informed and qualified drivers on our roads to help improve our driving experience and possibly ensure our safety in each journey, the LTO, the government entity in charge of ensuring this requirement in the first place, would instead tackle a problem that its convoluted processes started in the first place.
The committee that the wise LTO Chief created to review the questions and make the examinations shorter without compromising the quality of the drivers who pass them is up for a challenge. But how in one’s right mind will you be able to test the knowledge of a driver’s license applicant if the test itself will be compromised?
Much like my “Atras-AbanteHandbrake” experience, the LTO is setting itself up again to produce subpar drivers who can pass the license exam on their first try because the reviewers give away the answers; because the questions only require common sense and not deep thought to determine the answer; and because fixing the fixer is the bigger problem our society faces.
