No Law Yet Penalizing Drunk Driving?

**buriroy** · December 28th, 2009 11:36 PM

I couldn't believe it as I was reading an article on the Philippine Star dated
Dec. 23, 2009 entitled "MMDA to restrain drunk drivers" that MMDA Gen.Mgr.
Robert Nacienceno said that there is no law yet in the Philippines penalizing drunk driving. Whaaat! Is this true? Unbelievable!

How could our brilliant lawmakers with their high salaries and millions in pork barrell have neglected passing a necessary law such as this! We all know that a motor vehicle in the hands of an intoxicated person becomes a deadly weapon and it's an almost daily news item of horrific accidents involving drivers na "nakainom". I never realized that in this country you can legally drive while drunk and you only get penalized when you figure in an accident. That's when you get charged with "reckless imprudence resulting in damage to property and/or homicide."

All decent law-abiding citizens should petition our lawmakers to pass a law right away criminalizing drunk driving to help prevent the numerous road fatalities cause by these mindless idiots who choose to drink and drive.

**ghosthunter** · December 28th, 2009 11:55 PM

A law against drunk driving will be pointless if you cannot enforce it.

How will you measure the amount of alcohol in the driver?

What will be legal limit?

How many of those "breath-a-lyzer" machines will be given to the police to enforce anti-drunk driving?

How much will one machine cost? Add the price of government kickbacks (around 500%).

**buriroy** · December 29th, 2009 12:20 AM

Originally Posted by ghosthunter

A law against drunk driving will be pointless if you cannot enforce it.

How will you measure the amount of alcohol in the driver?

What will be legal limit?

How many of those "breath-a-lyzer" machines will be given to the police to enforce anti-drunk driving?

How much will one machine cost? Add the price of government kickbacks (around 500%).

If they can enforce it in other countries, why can't we do it here? Some cops in the States do "manual" detection like simply "noticing" a drunk's breath which is easily detectable, and making him walk a straight line. Anything as long as we can get these maniac drunk drivers off the road and prevent senseless road fatalities will be fine by me.

It's some Filipinos "can't-do" attitude that is keeping us mired in 3rd-world banana republic status for too long now!

**Chikselog** · December 29th, 2009 12:46 AM

Masakit talaga tanggapin ang katotohanan..Maraming pwedeng kumontra baka sabihin sita ng sita mga MMDA tapos pagbibintangan kang drunk driving pero di naman talaga or something like that.. Isa pa yung lagay..At yung mga ilang enforcers mismo na kulang ang knowledge about sa laws on the road and ang alam lang mangotong and you know, stuff like that..

Let's just hope and pray that the next president will do something about that

**ghosthunter** · December 29th, 2009 12:48 AM

Originally Posted by buriroy

If they can enforce it in other countries, why can't we do it here? Some cops in the States do "manual" detection like simply "noticing" a drunk's breath which is easily detectable, and making him walk a straight line. Anything as long as we can get these maniac drunk drivers off the road and prevent senseless road fatalities will be fine by me.

Won't you think if it was left to the "judgement" of local cops, it wouldn't be used as harassment tool to extort money from innocent motorists?

It's some Filipinos "can't-do" attitude that is keeping us mired in 3rd-world banana republic status for too long now!

Why not support the PGMA government's push for warrantless arrests while you're at it...

Personally I don't trust the authorities in the Philippines to follow their own laws... they would even be the first ones to break it.

**ghosthunter** · December 29th, 2009 12:51 AM

Originally Posted by Chikselog

Masakit talaga tanggapin ang katotohanan..Maraming pwedeng kumontra baka sabihin sita ng sita mga MMDA tapos pagbibintangan kang drunk driving pero di naman talaga or something like that.. Isa pa yung lagay..At yung mga ilang enforcers mismo na kulang ang knowledge about sa laws on the road and ang alam lang mangotong and you know, stuff like that..

Exactly!

If the MMDA traffic enforcers are already making fake violations like "swerving" and running a yellow traffic light, what else if we give them another one which is subjective to their judgement like "drunk driving"?

**praetor91313** · December 29th, 2009 06:32 AM

When I manned our ER we used to note in charts involving accidents "(+) alcohol breath". As I understand it, it's a mitigating circumstance in vehicular accidents.

If you're involved in a vehicular accident and you're drunk, then however the circumstances are, it would be presupposed that it's you're fault. My brother was hit by a 6-wheeler once while he was driving his sentra and it was clear that he was the one hit while turning left but the insurance didn't want to claim the damages because it was noted by the police that he had alcohol in his breath. He claimed he only had 2 bottles of beer, and he was trying to contest it.

Come to think of it, you can be charged with reckless driving when weaving in and out of your lane due to drunkenness, but not "Driving under the influence of alcohol."

**_Qwerty_** · December 29th, 2009 10:02 AM

narinig ko na din ang discussion dyan dati sa isang radio program.. ang sabi nung isang congressman.. pinagtatalunan daw kasi kung ilang percent na alcohol ang allowable or considered as drunk na.. tapos pinagtatalunan din na wala daw tools ang mga police to check this kaya useless din.. so ang ginagawa for the meantime eh kada CITY or Municipality eh nag pa pass na lang nang city ordinace regarding this.. under reckless driving..

**ghosthunter** · December 29th, 2009 02:20 PM

Originally Posted by _Qwerty_

narinig ko na din ang discussion dyan dati sa isang radio program.. ang sabi nung isang congressman.. pinagtatalunan daw kasi kung ilang percent na alcohol ang allowable or considered as drunk na.. tapos pinagtatalunan din na wala daw tools ang mga police to check this kaya useless din.. so ang ginagawa for the meantime eh kada CITY or Municipality eh nag pa pass na lang nang city ordinace regarding this.. under reckless driving..

The percentage can be adapted from US drunk driving laws.

Unfortunately the problem that we don't have the measuring gadgets is still the main problem.

**praetor91313** · December 29th, 2009 04:36 PM

Here's a list of the maximum blood alcohol levels in different countries:

The threshold for the maximum allowable BAC for drivers ranges from a level of 1.0mg/ml to a level of zero tolerance (0.0 mg/ml).

The United States has the highest permissible BAC level,
with some jurisdictions maintaining 1.0 mg/ml as the BAC threshold for impaired driving.

Nine countries have set their BAC level at 0.8 mg/ml, while 27 countries use 0.5 mg/ml as their legislated BAC. Only Lithuania’s BAC is designated to be 0.4 mg/ml, while three countries (Georgia, Moldova, Turkmenistan) have designated it at 0.3 mg/ml. Norway and Sweden stand together at 0.2 mg/ml, and Albania is alone at 0.1mg/ml.

Eight countries do not allow any traces of alcohol in a driver’s blood, while Russia designates its standard only with the term “drunkenness.”

A number of countries still do not have legislations regarding drunk driving and some have not set any maximum BACs.