Platform of good governance for motorists

A few days ago, I was at my favorite car accessories shop in  Fort Bonifacio, Global City, and was talking to the sales girls and customers about the elections when they all started teasing me that I should run for a party-list seat—something that would be of service to motorists. Which indeed got me thinking: If I did run for politics, what would my platform of good governance be?

Well, I actually sat down and thought about it and here’s what I’d do:

1. A proper evaluation and testing method for drivers. Too many people apply for a license not knowing the rules of the road, and  properly operating a motor vehicle (or motorcycle) for that matter. You just pay the fees at your local Land Transportation Office, wait to get your picture taken and that’s it. My proposal will have a proper testing facility (preferably a racetrack), certified driving instructors (think Tuason Racing School-trained instructors at the very least) and the results will be completely kept hidden from applicants.  Driving isn’t just a right or privilege, but a responsibility.

2. Proper street lights and street signs. As an example: I live in Mandaluyong/San Juan area and while the road lights are quite adequate in my area, I know other areas could be made better. Crucially, there’s a number of major one-way streets that don’t have enough signs to alert motorists that they are one-way. Which causes traffic (if we’re lucky) or even head-on collisions (if the idiot counter-flowing is unlucky). I’ve stopped a couple of times already to inform the erring motorist that the road is one-way and he or she is going against the legal flow of traffic. They all answer me back with a sarcastic tone that “they didn’t know.” It pisses me off because ignorance of the law does not exempt anyone from it!

3. Modified road user’s tax. Currently we pay a fixed amount for road user’s tax. My proposal is to base the road user’s tax on the number of cars you own or registered under your name; the more cars you own, the higher your road user’s tax will be per vehicle. This helps generate revenue, and only the rich will be affected by this. If you own only one car, you’ll pay the same rate. To avoid rich people from using dummies to have their expensive vehicles registered in their name, the LTO and the Bureau of Internal Revenue will do a background check on certain individuals who have a reported monthly income of only a certain amount but have a multimillion-peso car registered to their names. It might help catch tax evaders too, don’t you think? Fleet users will be charged a separate amount as well from private owners, and families with a large number of dependents (families of first degree of affinity and consanguinity) will also get discounts and incentives.

4. Incentives for first-time car buyers. To help the car industry grow, I’d enact a law giving tax incentives for first-time car buyers. And to prevent rich daddy from using his 18-year-old son or daughter as registered owner for his brand-new sports/luxury car, the cars eligible for incentives for first time car buyers would be all cars in the compact segment (think Honda Civic, Toyota Altis, Mitsubishi Lancer, Subaru Impreza, Ford Focus) and going downward or cheaper. This will help keep the car industry moving along at a decent growth rate yearly. Of course, new drivers must present a valid driver’s license before they can actually buy the car and drive new cars on the road.

5. A clear and proper taxation system for imported cars, be it grey market or official imports. The Bureau of Customs seems to be in a quandary at the moment with all the supposed smuggling that goes by under its nose. The key here is to have the base value of the cars published for all the public to see, and the corresponding tax fee they should pay. The base price should ideally be the freight-on-board value amount released from the manufacturer’s factory rather than the full on-the-road retail price, which often is the stumbling block faced by legitimate grey-market importers. Hence, when someone buys a brand-new vehicle, a copy of the certificate of tax payment should be included along the vehicle buyer’s official receipt, regardless if the vehicle is a Ford or Ferrari, Lamborghini or Lexus, Honda or Porsche. So he/she knows they bought a car with properly paid import and ad valorem taxes. Also, the government should decide once and for all if it will ban importation of second-hand, converted vehicles from Japan or levy a special tax on these vehicles. If the special tax levied on these vehicles will be expensive, then it will in itself kill the market for these second-hand converted vehicles.

6. Proper third-party insurance with driver’s history and evaluation. The insurance industry should pool their resources together and set up a database of drivers who have had serious driving incidents/accidents so they can properly evaluate the risk involved in insuring an individual. If an individual has had a number of serious accidents, then the industry group should impose very stiff insurance premiums on this driver because obviously, that driver will be at risk to get into more accidents in the future. If people see that their countless accidents will cause their mandatory third-party insurance to get higher and higher, then they will also force themselves to drive more carefully.

New drivers will also be given a higher insurance premium because new drivers are more likely to get into an accident. Finally, if an insured driver has been in constant, countless accidents, the insurance industry group should forcibly withhold insurance coverage on this individual, which in countries like the United States, means he or she cannot drive anymore. Why am I structuring it this way? Because if we left this to government, unscrupulous individuals will find a way to bribe someone to have their traffic/accident records expunged from the LTO database.

My wife hates the idea of me running for public office. Besides, by the time this gets published, elections would have been over. But hey, the platform sounds good right? Maybe you’ll see my face on campaign posters in a few years?