What’s a 5-hour seminar to a 50-year driving veteran?
For an octogenarian who swears he’s used to taking his time to get his way, my old man is uncharacteristically an eager beaver when it comes to renewing his license. The added urgency is probably because the Land Transportation Office has given the go-signal for the 10-year license validity for eligible applicants.
In order to acquire that, however, my father has to hurdle some obstacles. The first one is that he shouldn’t have committed any traffic violation during the entire five-year span of his current driver’s license. Right now, he seems well on his way to accomplish that, much thanks to the fact that the pandemic has prevented him from driving for almost two years, anyway.
Obstacle two is that, owing to his age, he would be required to undergo a medical exam assessing his fitness to drive every 2.5 years (30 months). If he fails that, his license will be revoked. My father insists he’s fit to drive. And as I see it, his walk may be slower, but he still has good reaction times and hand and eye coordination.
Obstacle three is that five-hour Comprehensive Driver’s Education seminar, which my colleagues in the beat have panned quite extensively (the common descriptor being “boring” and “ineffective”). But hey, that’s the policy, and if the government states that it’s mandatory, then it applies to all license applicants, whether they like it or not, until the office offers a better alternative.
My father’s current license is still good until his birthday in November 2022, but he already recently logged into the LTO system online to register for the 10-year license.
“Since I don’t have anything else to do, I’ll go ahead and review the CDE now,” he said a few days ago, as soon as the LTO announced that it would start rolling out the 10-year licenses in Metro Manila.
On his iPad, he logged into the LTO Land Transportation Management System Portal (https://lto.gov.ph/) and registered using his email address. He was given his lifetime LTMS account, which he used to access the portal and enroll in the seminar. Since he was a current license holder, he typed in his license number and expiry date and other personal information. A few more clicks and verification steps later, and my father was able to download the CDE program file, which turned out to be a 52-pager powerpoint/slide presentation.
I observed him as he flipped through the slides and topics—from Road Safety (the colors and images got his attention, somewhat) to Courtesy, then Stress and Road Rage. Through every topic that he encountered, he had his own commentary and, shall we say, his own “lecture” hinged on his experience as a driver, passenger, and pedestrian in Metro Manila for over 65 years.
“Courtesy? It’s showing politeness in one’s attitude and behavior towards other road users,” he declared.
Alternately looking at the slideshow and at me, he said, “As a driver, be courteous, and give the right of way when appropriate. Invoke your right of way when it is proper, but always drive defensively.”
This went on for almost every topic.
“Self-discipline is the ability to control yourself without needing outside supervision. Driving requires a determined level of self-control and proper reaction to a particular situation.” This time he stared intently at me all throughout. I indignantly pointed at his iPad and told him, “Hey, it’s not about me. Keep on reviewing.”
“What is stress? A physical, mental or emotional tension experienced by a person that demands an immediate and fair decision…”
Before he could say anything more, I butted in, “That’s why we shouldn’t talk politics when both of us are in the same car and either of us is driving.”
He continued, without skipping a beat, “Road rage—an assault, in any manner, to another person resulting from a misunderstanding, lack of traffic knowledge or discourtesy.”
He stopped browsing abruptly, and asked, “Do I really need to be reminded of this? I know I don’t. I think you do.”
There’s a section in the CDE that discusses bad habits of aggressive drivers and the accidents that occur because of these. He pored over the illustrations, and sighed, “It would have been better if there were actual videos of these scenarios, so the lesson could be better understood.”
He griped, “Is there a Tagalog version of the CDE? Many driver applicants may have a hard time with the English language. Maybe I can offer my services as a Tagalog translator for this module.”
There is already a Pilipino version of the CDE, I assured him.
What the LTO estimates would be a 5-hour reviewer turned out to run, more or less, 10 hours for my father. It took him, with all his side comments and life sharing, until the next day to finish going through all the slides.
Maybe the CDE should come with the advisory: “For best results, this seminar should be taken between meals, after naps and snacks, with a wisecracking octogenarian”.
