Joenel Umal

Who are the biggest helmet offenders?

“In a bizarre international twist to the helmet debate, Philippine motorcycle police who don’t wear theirs while on duty are upsetting officials as well as the public.” - read more

I remembered a time when I was going to the market and a motorcycle police flagged me because I was not wearing a helmet, I told him that my house was just a few blocks away and I was just going to buy a few things on the market, I just decided to ride my motor instead of walking because its too hot, besides I was barely running at 30kph. The policeman still wanted to take my license and didn’t even bother with my plea to let me go.

So how does this story relate to this issue?

Well, I notice that he didn’t have a helmet on his motorcycle but didn’t bother to open up the issue ( I know better than to argue with a policeman who obviously wanted to confiscate my license hoping that I would just bribe him and spare both of us the trouble, sad but true…) So I just gave him my license and got my ticket, besides I still have some cards to play. So after I got home from the market I called up some friends from the police station and asked if they know the guy who confiscated my license , they said yes so I asked them if they could do anything to get my license back, they said no prob and then later that day I got my license back.

The policeman who flagged me even told me that I should have mentioned that I know some guys from the station and he wouldn’t have confiscated my license. I don’t know if I should be mad, I wanted to shout and tell him that I told him that I live a few blocks away so obviously I know some of those police. I just thanked him for returning my license and walked away.

I abide by the traffic rules whenever I go to far places using my Bike, and I never forget to wear my helmet. Its sad that the guys who pulls over members of the general public for not wearing helmets or even some minor violations are the ones breaking them, so who should police these guys?