First of all, a disclaimer. The practices mentioned in this article are NOT to be followed, are illegal, and often highly dangerous. The Philippines has a very high rate of deaths and injuries on the roads which is a very serious and tragic problem. I advocate for drivers learning and carefully following the road rules. Courtesy and driver education are vital for the dangerous road toll to be reduced. Having a poor attitude towards other vehicles and road users – including pedestrians, really makes one unfit to drive a motor vehicle. Please be aware, eyes open, calm and courteous at all times.
Driving in the Philippines is quite an adventure to say the least. Forget those guys taking tumbles off tall buildings, riding skateboards down stairway rails or jumping motorcycles over canyons. Driving in the Philippines is the real deal. Every time you get in your vehicle, be it motorcycle (May God have mercy on your soul) car, or any other wheeled contraption, you are certainly taking your life in your hands, and the lives of your companions.
Let’s start off by entering the carriageway shall we? Don’t use your turn signals, only a few overcautious novices would do that – and just take a cursory glance behind you, if you see something that looks like a vehicle coming up behind you, likely you can just speed up and enter the road anyway! Mirrors? NO! You mustn’t use those, in fact, if you have a motorcycle, they can be removed (they look ugly don’t they?) After all, they aren’t needed on race tracks, and for a motorcycle, the road IS a race track! Now if you do still have mirrors on your handlebars, they can be adjusted simply to look at your own handsome face – check for imperfections if you must, or you can check out the gorgeous companion back riding with you or with that other biker… just be careful that they don’t know.
There are a couple of very important rules to driving in the Philippines. You MUST use your horn as frequently as you can, the louder the better, and secondly, you MUST overtake other drivers at every opportunity – and if there is no opportunity, do it anyway!
See those lines either yellow or white in running in the centre of the road? Apparently those are to tell you when it’s safe to overtake or when it is undesirable. The important thing about Philippine driving is to remember these are only suggestions. The authorities may tell you that it’s forbidden and unsafe to go over solid unbroken yellow lines either single or double. They seem to place such lines on bridges, or on corners where you can’t see the traffic coming towards you. SO inconvenient. I have rarely seen anyone who takes these lines seriously.
Apparently there are speed limits in different areas. I don’t really know about them, most drivers don’t, and there are rarely any signs telling one what the speed limit on a given stretch of road is. This tends to be interpreted as ‘no posted speed limit = no speed limit’. Makes sense huh? Sure, there may be chickens trying to cross the road (no time to ask them why), dogs mating with their cousin dogs at the sides of the road, little Toto the three year old boy running on the road to fetch his flip flops, or an old lolo trying to cross the road, waving his walking stick at some hoon on a BMW big bike. Don’t mind these minor obstructions, remember THE HORN! Press it firmly, loudly, and try to make it angry sounding if you can. Oh – and let’s not forget the old passenger trike. These curious Philippine adaptions somehow used for public transport, carrying anywhere from one to thirteen passengers – I have SEEN it! These things have nothing more than a 100 -125cc motor wheezing and putt-putting its way down the middle of the highway at something between 25 – 40 Kilometers per hour, surrounded by some sort of metal cage with a few very uncomfortable seats jammed inside. One does need to jam on the brakes fairly hard when encountering these three wheeled wobble-wheeled contraptions, and once again, the HORN! Truth be known, beeping the horn has little to no effect on the tricycle driver who will just totally ignore your presence – and your rage, and will just continue putt-putting along in the centre lane of the highway, legs up in a very relaxed position, talking lazily to his passengers. Yes, it may be dangerous, but remember, Philippine driving is for thrill seekers, not for the faint of heart. There are few drivers more relaxed about facing great danger than a tricycle driver.
When coming to road works, more adventures are available. One needs to determine exactly where you are supposed to travel, Lord have mercy on you if you encounter road works at night, I have seen cars plunged into holes that swallowed up the entire vehicle, as there was barely any signage, certainly no warning lights or reflective signs. There are sometimes guys with a stop sign at each end of a road works area, they seem to have some strange system of communicating with each other, but it appears to be hit and miss (sometimes literally) about who goes at what time. If you are a motorcycle, you may just ignore the whole deal and proceed as if there were no roadworks or signage at all, sneak your way around the signs and barriers and proceed until you get to the end, and twist that throttle all the way when you get out. There will be another blog about all the joys and adventures of motorcycle riding in future, so stay tuned for that.
Well, perhaps you get the idea now, that driving in the Philippines is quite an adventure, but please remember what is written above is very tongue in cheek, and NOT to be taken seriously. Yes, we see these things happen, but you dear reader, are much better that that. Yes? Things are gradually improving, now at least there is a compulsory minimum 8 hours practical training course for new drivers, still hopelessly inadequate for the dangers of the roads, but it is a significant improvement from before when only a sit in seminar was required to let you loose on the roads.
Stay safe, be courteous.
The pictures above were taken near our home in a period of a few months apart. Accidents are very regular, particularly in rainy weather.
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