(This may just be) the very reason why we are not progressing

Sometime in 2006, I picked up my sister at the Manila Domestic Terminal just passed 1 in the afternoon.  We were cruising along Andrews Ave. in Pasay City and upon reaching the T-junction by Aurora Blvd (Tramo) I was stopped by a Pasay traffic enforcer.”Shoot! Coding pala tayo,” I exclaimed as the enforcer walked towards the car.  

All the while, I knew that the car was not suppose to ply the roads on that day, Friday.  I figured I had a window between 10am and 4pm being that I was coming from Paranaque.  However, Pasay City did not observe this window.  But heck it, I was going to use this car anyway because I had to pick up my sister.

“Sir, coding po sasakyan niyo,” Mr. Enforcer said.
“Sir, pasensya na.  Sinundo ko lang kapatid ko sa airport.”
“Bawal ho kasi sasakyan niyo ngayon.  Alam niyo naman yan, di ba?”

As I tried to talk my way through the situation, another enforcer flagged down a vehicle.  I assumed this was for the same violation of the Unified Vehicular Volume Reduction Program (UVVRP)…because our car plates ended with the same number.  The basic idea behind the program is that vehicles whose alphanumeric plate ends in a particular number is barred from using the main streets of Metro Manila on particular days (Wikipedia.org).

Then after a couple of minutes, the enforcer let the car go.

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