The MMDA’s latest gimmick, Pink Cloth, takes off, according to INQ7. Yeah, it took off and crash-landed immediately.

Early last night I was witness to the Pinoy’s penchant for rule-breaking. You can’t blame the MMDA for resorting to pink gimmicks, from pink fences and now, pink clothes. These gimmicks are immutable signs of the lack of discipline in our part. You see, the MMDA has to erect pink fences just to remind drivers and commuters where to load and unload. However, we Filipinos are known on hurdling obstacles, and in this case, literally.

Last night after training, infront of the bus bays at Farmers Plaza, I saw these MMDA men carrying aluminum poles, with pink cloth in them, plus a bell. The commuters enter the lane assigned for a certain bus route. Great idea. So when a bus overstays its welcome, the MMDA man just lowers the pole at the lane exit, a flimsy way to stop riders from getting in on the bus. Also, the buses can no longer take passengers on the stop that is not assigned to their route.

The ideas were good. It’s just that there’s no stopping Pinoys from their rulebreaking habit. I get the idea why, since complying to the laws does not pay. You’ll see why.

Now, about the pink cloth. This plan failed. Let me describe the situation. The bus bay at Farmers is divided into two lanes. If you are facing EDSA North, on your right side is the lane assigned to the routes going Sta. Maria in Bulacan, Monumento, UE-Letre, Malanday/Marilao. On the middle, Fairview, Novaliches. The outermost left lane is free-for-all, but buses cannot load and unload passengers on that lane. Now, in the right lane, the exits are as follows (still facing EDSA North): Angat/Sta. Maria, Malanday/Monumento, exit to the next lane, UE-Letre/Monumento. To circumvent the ideas of MMDA, you can do two things. One, if you are bound to UE-Letre, line up in the Sta. Maria or Malanday exits. Buses, driven by typical Pinoy bus drivers, will stop on all exits to get passengers. So when the bus gets on its proper exit, the bus is full. Second, stay at the exit going to the middle lane. When the bus stops at the Malanday exit, get on the road and take the bus.

The passenger lanes are even divided into two – aircon and ordinary bus exits. A third way of circumventing rules – line up on the lane that has the lesser people; whether you will take an aircon or ordinary bus doesn’t matter.

So imagine what happened to me last night. It took me 30 minutes before I got in a bus. Since I wanted to take an aircon bus, I lined up on the aircon bus lane of the first UE-Letre bus stop. In horror, then rage, I saw UE-Letre buses loading at the bus stop assigned for Sta. Maria-bound buses! When those buses reached where I am, they were already full (and I won’t pay seventeen pesos to stand up in a packed bus). And when UE-Letre ordinary buses arrived, people lined up at the aircon lane boarded. All I could do last night was shake my head. Shook my head a lot of times.

The Pinoys don’t have the concept of lining up – when someone is ahead of you, you line up at his back (that’s the idea). But no, that’s not the Pinoy way – if you can get ahead of the queue, go for it! And last night I got to observe this Pinoy talent in practice. Unfortunately, most of those who did it were women.

The MMDA men’s actions (or I mean inaction) didn’t help. Laws and rules are useless if implementors of these cannot, do not, and will not implement them. Ideally there should be one MMDA man for each exit, and two more to tell bus drivers to move on. Last night, you could see their ineptness. No one was guarding the exit to the middle lane. They allowed buses to load at exits not assigned to these buses. Though I can’t blame these men, with emasculated powers to enforce these rules. So when the people openly defy their orders, what could the Blue Boys do?

And it saddens me to see these people openly defying the laws, the rules. Is lack of discipline, the lack of respect to rules, endemic to the Filipino nature? Is it an inseparable part of its character? Is it going to be part of our national identity?

I think it is not endemic to our nature, nor it is a part of our character. I have heard of amusing (maybe, not amusing at all) stories of rulebreakers becoming stickler to rules when abroad. My uncle is an example. He had already migrated to the United States, courtesy of his mother. He was a typical Pinoy – throws cigarrette butts anywhere, spits anywhere, crosses at the dangerous parts of the streets, inconsiderate driver – you know the drill. Imagine our shock when he came back here for a visit. He even told us to cross the street when the lights are red.

Everyone else is doing it, why can’t I? That’s the name of my co-worker’s blog, which was named one of the sexiest Pinay bloggers and who is due to leave our company. (Just plugging her blog. Go read it.) Anyway, I think that’s the usual justification that we Pinoys say when we break rules. I realized that last night. You see, being compliant to the laws and rules does not pay; see what happened to me last night. I could have transferred to the Sta. Maria/Malanday exits, and got home early. I could have stayed at the exit going to the middle lane, and took a bus there. But no, I chose to follow the rules, and see what it caused me.

And sometimes we view rules as impediments to our goals. These pink fences impedes our desire to get home early. Elections impede our desire to be in power. So what do we do? We short-circuit the process, we break or bend the rules to our advantage.

These pink fences, these pink clothes, these number schemes – these are signs that we Filipinos cannot be trusted in following rules. The rules are there to govern our behavior, to honor the rights of others. It is part of our social contract. And acting as if there are no rules is a sign of a sick mind. These pink fences, these pink clothes -they are signs that we are a sick country, a sick people. We are in need of healing. Badly.