2025 resolutions for all Filipino drivers
Ahas or snake generally connotes something negative in the Philippines.
In modern society, an ‘ahas’ refers to another party (or even parties) who are trying to take someone away from a committed relationship. Local mythology also speaks of the Bakunawa or the “moon-eating dragon,” which is believed to be the causes of eclipses, earthquakes, rain and wind because of its ability to eat the Sun and the Moon.
And who could forget the Book of Genesis – a serpent (arguably the devil in disguise) leads humanity to sin, thereby banishing us from the Garden of Eden.
Despite all this, the Philippines is one of many countries that closely follow the Chinese zodiac, with 2025 happening to be the Year of the Wood Snake, a creature that symbolizes intuition, wisdom, and adaptability.
We’ll show you how the traits of this ‘ahas’ can make our motoring lives easier and safer this New Year.
Calm down
Road congestion is undoubtedly a product of monumental systematic failures.
From poor urban planning to the unregulated sale of cars and motorcycles, our love for our own set of wheels has the wholly unsurprising consequence of turning our alleyways, urban roads, national highways and expressways into parking lots. And letting off steam on your fellow suffering road users is barking up the wrong tree.
Going out on the road just to get mad at everybody not only makes you a complete lunatic who should have his or her driving license taken away, but only makes our roads even more dangerous. So, accept what you’re in for and find a way around it.
Push for safer cars and roads
The absolutely right tree to bark up includes those who formulate and implement public policy – the very same people we are employing with all our votes and taxes.
Philippine politicians have long been renowned for being greedy, self-serving and stubborn, but some are actually willing to use their power for useful policies. That’s how the likes of the Child Safety in Motor Vehicles Act, the Anti-Distracted Driving Act, and the Children’s Safety of Motorcycles Act managed to see the light of day.
But it cannot stop with just passing landmark laws – bearing down and helping resolve the shortcomings of implementing agencies like the Land Transportation Office (LTO), the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA), the Philippine National Police (PNP), and others will make all this legislation worth more than the paper they are printed on.
This is because road crashes are shocking in more ways than just viral videos – the World Health Organization (WHO) said road crashes killed 11,096 Filipinos in 2021, an ahas that brought massive pain, suffering, and expense to their loved ones.
And perhaps most shocking of all, road crashes cost an estimated 3 percent of our gross domestic product (GDP), which is a measure of our economic strength. Using the World Bank’s computation of the Philippines’ 2023 GDP, all this carnage cost us around P730 billion that year for everything from fixing damaged roads, to providing medical care.
Think about it – we spent around P730 billion on something that could be prevented entirely with sound policy that is properly implemented by the people we are paying. In private enterprise, heads would roll if employees and executives spent that much money on the aftermath, instead of fixing the actual problem.
Inquirer Motoring has long outlined several helpful policy measures, ranging from mandating active driver-assist systems in all new cars sold locally to creating a Philippine Transportation Safety Board that can effectively find the causes of road crashes. Making a difference shouldn’t just be the job of special-interest groups and political lobbyists.
Relearn to drive
As I’ve written before, the weakest link in any car, motorcycle, truck or even bicycle, is the human operating it.
None of these machines just suddenly lose control and crash – the fact that there’s someone driving is why the WHO says no road crash is ever an accident.
Indeed, the MMDA said in its 2023 Metro Manila Accident Reporting and Analysis System that there were 85,954 crashes in the metro that year.
The top three vehicles involved were cars (54 percent), motorcycles (22.03 percent), and trucks (7.41 percent). Countries like the United Kingdom offer advanced driving courses that not only improve vehicle control, but also reduce insurance premiums.
A similar system would be nice locally, but your best bet at the moment would be private driving schools that offer more comprehensive theoretical and practical driving programs, thanks to much stricter driver’s licensing regulations.
Meanwhile, groups like the Automobile Association of the Philippines’ Motorsport Development Program, Super Sprint and Gymkhana Pilipinas offer advanced driving programs that allow you to explore the limits of your car and driving in safe and controlled environments.
All these would likely elicit a smile from the Wood Snake. Not all ahas are bad, you know.
