November 30, 8:29PM. Or thereabouts. While driving from S&R Bacoor to Escobar’s Steakhouse in Versailles Town Plaza via Daang Hari Road. Right after the Daang Hari Road-Villar Avenue intersection, a traffic enforcer signaled for me to stop.
“That was a red,” he said. He was, at least, smiling.
“No,” I said. “It turned orange when I was already in the middle of the road, in the middle of the intersection.”
“May dashcam ka. Hanapin natin.”
So we did.
But while doing so, the side comments kept coming.
“Matatagalan tayo nito.”
“Gagawin namin, kunin lisensiya mo.”
“Yung clearance, Cavite lang magbibigay.”
“Matagal ang proseso; tatlong araw din. Three days ka wala lisensiya.”
“Tagarito kayo? Kung hindi, naku, malayo babalikan nyo niyan.”
I asked for the process: “What happens now, then?”
“Bibigyan ka ng ticket.”
“And then what?”
He didn’t explain. The aforementioned comments were just repeated. Or versions of them.
He left the side of the car then; I was still surfing the video clips from the dashcam.
Then a different guy appeared.
“Naku, sir,” he said, “matatagalan talaga tayo niyan.”
I asked again: What’s the process to follow, then?
Still nothing straightforward.
Then, from beside me, A asked: “Kung magbibigay, magkano?”
This time, the answer was blunt, fast: “Kayo bahala.”
He then moved to the other side of the car. To collect.
And so yeah… that’s how the third time I experienced kotong unfolded. The first was in Parañaque; the second in Cubao, Quezon City; and now this, in Cavite. Different places, but similar approach, with almost uniform spoken lines.
And so, I now repeat some of them:
“Matatagalan tayo nito.”
“Gagawin namin, kunin lisensiya mo.”
“Yung clearance, Cavite lang magbibigay.”
“Matagal ang proseso; tatlong araw din. Three days ka wala lisensiya.”
“Tagarito kayo? Kung hindi, naku, malayo babalikan nyo niyan.”
The difference I noted in Cavite was the blatant asking. That “kung magbibigay”, “kayo na ang bahala”.
In Cubao, the person had to pretend to emphasize that he didn’t ask for any amount, that it was us who offered the money. And yet he actually initiated the money exchange, even demanding we give a specific amount since he has to give his bosses their cuts. And he even had a “system” for the money exchange so that the bill wasn’t seen when he accepted it.
At dinner after the Cavite kotong, we were discussing the irony of it all: That very day, all over the country, there were rallies against kawat, against kawatan. But there we were, victimized by supposed “enforcers” of the law. Literally robbed.
We are so used to kawat. It is so ingrained in everything Filipino. When really it shouldn’t be.
And yeah, we need an overhaul. A major overhaul.
Else this kawat, packaged like it’s for our own benefit, will just continue.
