PASS THE LAW

April 5, 2025 Opinion

More and more incidents and cases of so called ‘road rage’ are occurring with regularity along the main thoroughfares of cities and municipalities particularly along busy roads and streets populated with all types of motor vehicles. And sometimes all it takes is for one motorist to feel and somehow sense that his right, if there is any, and privilege to drive a motor vehicle along a public road or highway has been violated by another motorist. Take for example the recent case of road rage that happened in Sito Boso-Boso, Barangay San Jose, Antipolo City where a man who was driving his SUV shot several motorcyclists after an altercation and which eventually led to the death of
one of the motorcyclists.

Everything was caught on video and which became viral. Earlier video posts reveal that the man got out of his motor vehicle and confronted two of several motorcyclists which then led to fisticuffs. It then reached the point where the driver of the SUV after engaging in a fistfight with two of the motorcyclists suddenly pulled out a gun and began a shooting spree. The early videos posted online would also show the driver of the SUV carrying a woman whom he also shot and perhaps with the intention of bringing her to a hospital for
treatment. Later on other videos posted online will show police authorities chasing the SUV driven by the man who was later on arrested.

All in all a classic example of road rage where a motorist was offended by another motorist and a confrontation ensued that ended up as a shooting incident. This brings us to the issue of whether the road rage occurrence could have been avoided by either or both of the
motorists. When feelings and emotions are involved there is definitely no way to clearly avoid some form of confrontation, either verbal or
physical, especially when the motorists are stressed or under some form of pressure which can be easily triggered by the occurrence of a sudden event, such as a near mishap of their motor vehicles, or some other unnatural traffic incident they will be involved in.

And so we wonder why up to now there is still no law enacted by Congress that would somehow temper or even prevent these road rage
incidents from occurring along the major roads and streets in the country. This type of traffic incidents will only occur in increasing frequency considering the ever increasing number of motor vehicles using plying the thoroughfares. There is in fact a proposed law on the matter and this is House Bill 5759 filed in the Lower House in Congress way back in 2019, but it has yet to be enacted into law. The said
proposed bill seeks to penalize acts of road rage and was introduced by House of representatives Erwin Tulfo, Edvic Yap, Jocelyn Tulfo, Eric Yap and Ralph Tulfo.

The penalties for acts of road rage under the said proposed law are quite stiff such that if a person engages in road but no death or injury occurred that person shall still be penalized with an imprisonment of 6 months to one year and a fine of not less than fifty thousand pesos but not more than one hundred thousand pesos, both at the discretion of the court. However if physical injuries will result due to the act of road rage then the penalty is an imprisonment of two years to four years and a fine of not less than one hundred thousand pesos but not more than two hundred fifty thousand pesos, exclusive of all the damages incurred.

In the event that the act of road will result in the death of a party then the penalty of imprisonment will be six years to twelve years and a fine of not less than two hundred fifty thousand pesos but not more than five hundred thousand pesos, exclusive of all the damages incurred, to be imposed at the discretion of the court. In case the one who will commit the act of road rage is a government official or employee then he or she will also suffer the accessory penalty of perpetual disqualification from government service. These are severe penalties that can be imposed on an individual or even group that will commit acts of road rage based on the provisions of the said proposed law.

Unfortunately almost six year after it was filed there has yet been no decisive action from the Lower House to approve this proposal to
penalize acts of road rage. Perhaps after the local elections, when we shall probably have new congresspersons in the Lower House some lawmaker might finally work up the courage to re-file the proposal to finally establish a legal measure that would further deter motorists
from engaging in acts of road rage, and thus contribute to discipline and road safety.