A rude awakening...

ADVISORY:

Just had a phone meeting with Mario Umbao Gaudiano, Head of the ICC on Helmet Program and Specialist Product Manager of the BPS under the DTI.

I have just confirmed the "alleged" meeting with the DOTC, LTO, MMDA, MCPF and another undeclared party with him and the program being "arranged" in Antipolo for August 18.

Here is what we talked about:

1. The meeting took place and a lot of questions were raised... There was another party in the meeting which was not included in the announcements made... Why? I don't really know and honestly, I don't really care... A lot of questions were thrown around and a lot of advise coming from the DTI as to the issues facing the riders in the stickering program and the upcoming street level apprehensions... All they (the undeclared party) can utter is, "what can we do, the law has been passed... Whats left is for us to TRY and make amendments to it..." I would say, since you have made this law, instead of passing blame to others when you could have fixed it prior to it's approval, is spearhead its amendment... If you can't or wont, then we will fix the mess you left for us...

2. As far as enforcement on street level is concerned, the discussion led to, the LTO does not need to issue any directive or deputation to any of the enforcement agency (MMDA, LGU and PNP) for them to conduct their own operation... The issue with this is, since the law has many TECHNICAL PROBLEMS, the enforcement can misinterpret or use their own interpretation to apprehend riders... A means to corruption on the streets and pass the burden to the riders as stated in our fears and worst expectations... DTI is asking LTO and the other agencies to setup guidelines on what is required on the streets as the ICC sticker should only serve as the guideline for the consumer and not the enforcer... This way, the consumers are protected from the worst on street level... I told him that it may not be enough that the amendment is the absolute solution... All we need to do is to make it happen and support what needs to happen...

3. There are no arrangements, no MOA's, no joint forces or agreements between the DTI and any other group except the other government agencies involved in this act... So anything announced, is something that DTI has been conducting and doing from the get go... The stickers and forms are free since this all started... The offer to serve groups, organizations, NGO's and private companies with 30 riders/helmets or more is something they came up on their own and had been doing before some announcements were made claiming it as their project or saying that it is "courtesy of..." MRO's announcement on August 2 in regard to this is clear that this was instigated by the DTI and they reached out to us for help and cooperation which we gladly agreed to in service of the community... NOT TO TAKE CREDIT FROM WHERE IT IS DUE...

4. That there are things that has yet to be coordinated properly, but should always be coursed through the DTI so that nobody is misquoted, misinterpreted and misrepresented... In fairness to the others, there is a program on August 18 in Antipolo as announced only verbally late yesterday, but no paperwork has been made and no notice given to the DTI branch in Antipolo as of this morning...

5. That prior to making such statements or announcements, we should be sure of what we promise people before things go sour and things become ill gotten... It is so easy to say that they announced it without coordination and planning if this was to push through or not and now, they are trying to rush the departments who had offered this program to them like it was offered to us... That program in which they are claiming as their own and making it FREE for their co-federation members only...

6. That it is sad to see how something that DTI had given to the people on their own accord is being claimed by others and is even being promulgated as "courtesy of" the said parties taking recognition from those UN-aware... That this will be brought up with the Director of the BPS and the Under Secretary of the DTI on how they were not shown due respect with these acts of hypocrisy from the very people who have been attacking the other groups because of their (candidly announced) intention to run for office and yet, they allow this ka-EPAL-an to happen... And when I say "allow", I mean it by giving them the benefit of the doubt that they did not instigate or is not part of any of this pre-marking of DTI's form for the stickering of helmets...

With that said, I hope, for their sake, that they only made a mistake in their statements (which the followup posts clearly shows otherwise) and make the necessary corrections and give back credit to where it is due... The DTI only means to help the people and protect the consumer... However, since they are only the implementing body of the LAW, the people behind the said ACT should have made efforts to help protect the riders that they CLAIM to represent instead of making it look like they are CLAIMING CREDIT for what DTI has been doing for us...

And what makes it more intriguing is the fact that they announced that they will put a stop to the stickering through the DOJ and now, they admit that they cannot do anything about what they have started in the first place... That they have even resorted to pointing fingers at other people that, if they only paid attention to and listened to the warnings of others, could have been avoided prior to the passage of the LAW...

It is truly funny how all of this works...

All this could have been avoided if only they PAID ATTENTION and put the people's interest before their own that has looked like it only fed their EGO...