DRIVING inside the Subic Freeport is like driving the way it used to be, driving in the states. 

Drivers stop on four-way stops, stop signs, pedestrian crossings and follow traffic signal lights. Pedestrians are given priority in crossing the street. “First stop, first to go” is strictly enforced when traffic lights are not working. Drivers just follow the rules.

While in Clark, it’s the other way around. 

Drivers don’t stop for pedestrians and stop signs. 

The Clark Freeport probably has less than 15 stop signs. But it’s very seldom you’ll see drivers following them. 

Apparently they’re just suggestions. 

Motorcycles weave around vehicles to get in front of the line. The M.A. Roxas Highway is the main and busiest highway but you won’t see any security staff chasing or pointing their radar guns at speeding vehicles. 

Yes, I was pulled over for going over the 60-kilometer/hour speed limit, maybe 70 km/h. Yes, I was at fault. But along that highway, you could see those “race car” drivers and racing motorcyclists going over 100 km/h. 

One time, I tried to race a motorcyclist as I was going 100 km/h and he just zoomed by me. That was fast for a small-engine motorcycle. And they know there are no security personnel that are going to catch them. 

Paging former Brig. Gen Antonio Rosario: let’s instill some discipline among our drivers here in Clark if we want our Freeport to be a complete destination. 

Let’s not wait for a major accident to happen.

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Our major highways here in Pampanga should also be free of obstructions. 

Tricycles, in the first place, are not permitted to traverse the highways. But since tricyles are a major transport vehicle for the “poor”, concern authorities merely “let them go”. 

But driving on the passing lane is, I think, not the right lane for them as they are so slow and might cause an accident. 

Where are our friends from the Land Transportation Office and the Highway Patrol Group of Central Luzon to monitor our highways?

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Meanwhile, here in Angeles City and Mabalacat City, e-trikes are mushrooming. 

These are supposed to be used inside subdivisions not the main streets of the cities, where they drive around as if they owned the road, not minding other motor vehicles. 

Maybe the LGUs of the cities of Angeles and Mabalacat should pass an ordinance limiting the use of these transports along main streets. 

The elections are over. Maybe local lawmakers can work on this.

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House Bill (HB) 1419, or the Anti-Lane Splitting Law, has been filed in the Lower House. 

If this becomes a law, hopefully the soonest, motorcyclists who don’t have any patience at all, will be penalized and their licenses revoked. 

Here’s hoping that this law will deter motorcyclists from doing whatever they’re doing now. 

But knowing Filipinos, they’ll still do it.