VIP treatment

Wednesday afternoon I was motoring northbound along Lacson and 19 th Streets when I met a southbound convoy of flashing lights using the counterflow. The lead cars were a couple of police vehicles and they were urgently making way for one of those black APEC vans that was at the rear of the convoy.

I don't know who was in that APEC vehicle but since the news reports have not revealed any big names or people holding big (minister or cabinet secretary level) positions, I can guess that whoever was in that convoy may have been a delegate or participant in the forums, but if you really come to think of it, the person couldn't have been such a bigshot. And yet that urgently moving and self-important convoy gave us mere mortals the impressions that we had to bow down and give way to it.

For all I know that feeling-VIP van could have been occupied by a messenger or bully-boy with a package of takeout batchoy from 21 because some mid-level technocrat or bureaucrat had a hankering for some of that for local flavor, for his or her merienda. Whatever that convoy contained, I don't think they needed all that security and VIP treatment but that's just my own humble opinion.

If I were a delegate and I wasn't even a head of state, not even a minister or cabinet level secretary, meaning I probably drive my own car to work or, if I come from a first world country where honest and decent public servants aren't an endangered species: take public transportation to get around; I'd probably be impressed with all that VIP treatment but if I stop and think about all the resources being wasted and the people being inconvenienced, I'd be embarrassed to be in any counterflowing-everything-but-the-wang-wang convoy.

I hope the self-important convoys aren't part of APEC requirements for a city to host its meetings and that those were just provided by over-eager, misguided and overly-compensating local officials who have taken the concept of Filipino hospitality a little too far.

It has to be said but irresponsibly dishing out and accepting VIP treatment is unhealthy and a symptom of a dysfunctional society. People in authority who are supposed to be public servants yet think nothing of dishing it out and making exceptions for semi-important visitors, “friends” and themselves are corrupting the moral standards of their communities when they say it is ok to break the rules and inconvenience the public for important people sometimes.

On the other hand the sense of entitlement VIP treatment generates among the weak-willed and easily impressed who allow themselves to start thinking that they deserve more than the average guy on the street tends to create more problems than solutions.

Case in point would be the arrogance of the driver of that counterflowing Jaguar that was caught on a dashcam and went viral on social media. After becoming a social media superstar and having the plate number identified, the driver finally surfaced from the pit he had been hiding in and it turns out that the driver of that car was no VIP. He was just a driver employed by some security agency. What made him think he could drive in a counterflow and even give him the nerve to berate the guy who had the right of way? I don't think it was the Jag.

What turned that regular tsuper into an arrogant douchetard was the immersion in a culture of arrogance and impunity that made him think he was exempted from the rules. He sees firsthand everyday how an expensive car with matching security convoy can bully other motorists around. He probably saw how his bosses' influence got their drivers off the hook when well-meaning law enforcers try to get them to follow the law. He witnesses how easy it is to pay off cops so they can escort their VIP convoy around; allowing them to motor around like kings while the rest of humanity suffers in silence. Being part of all that bogus VIP culture made him think he was special when he wasn't.

Good thing there was a dashcam video with audio that showed the world just how special he was.

That driver turned into a monster after being exposed to so much VIP treatment and that is the reason why those in power shouldn't hand it out to anybody like candy. Private clubs and establishments can reserve lounges, or provide special access and services to people who qualify to be called their VIP's, but public servants shouldn't be allowed to treat the community's streets and resources like a private club just to impress some guys. I don't know why it's not, but it should be illegal for police officials to rent out their men and vehicles to any VIP wannabe who wants to get from the airport to the hotel pronto or some hungry delegate who has a hankering for batchoy.

Imagine a world where our public servants can treat us all like VIP's. They'd be personally ashamed when their constituents have to be stuck in traffic, spend hours in line transacting at some government office, or have the trash outside their homes pile up like smelly mountains. Wouldn't you want to get the VIP treatment from your elected official?*

VIP should mean Very Important Philippines.*

Follow: twitter.com/bindadu
Reactions/comments/excuses: mail@carloleonardia.com

back to top