There is a pending agreement between the Government of the Philippine Republic and the Kingdom of Spain which expressly allows Filipinos to secure a Spanish driver’s license while in Spain and which grants Spaniards in the Philippines with a Spanish driver’s license the right to get a Philippine driver’s license while in the Philippines.

This agreement to take effect this September, although is seen as a welcome development and strengthening of international relations, in the plurality of things, raises more questions than answers that need addressing to ensure that the advantages intended by this agreement be not overcome and negated by the dilemma stirred by its enforcement.

On one side of this coin, we have Filipinos in Spain being spared the bureaucracy and red tape of applying for a driver’s license. As if the hardships of securing travel and immigration permits and clearances are not sufficient detriment to our search for greener pastures beyond the shores of our Inang Bayan. At home, this could be an opportunity for our traffic enforcers to serve with integrity and honesty for a change since they would be dealing with people from a culture who are used to do the intimidating.

Moreover, this opportunity has the potential to open the floodgates of other tie-ups with the international community that will make it easier for us to live in a place where nearly everything is Greek to us.

From a broader perspective, this will have the effect of promoting the country’s tourism industry, as it means easier access and more convenient travel within the Philippines. Considering that most of the foreigners in our soil are tourists and vacationers, this would serve as a stronger tourism magnet and will generally redound to the benefit of the national economy.

It is of most likelihood that this precedent will herald greater things to come, at least within the realms of international relations.

And yet the other side of this coin is more rusted or carbonized than the other.

All those who have lived by the roads like I have, earning a living driving a vehicle not our own, plying the routes of the thoroughfares and back alleys, enduring the daily exposure to heat, dust, and other elements detrimental to self - interest and self – preservation while avoiding vultures in traffic uniform, can easily think of another additional hundred and one daggers pointing at our guts.

The horrendous and patience-breaking traffic characteristic of our metropolis needs no additional horde of road hogs to render unbearable an already curse-invoking situation. Another no win situation for Filipino drivers, particularly those in public utilities, is the very real possibility of another milking cow for the vultures in traffic uniform. More than the barya-barya earnings of local drivers, to see a Caucasian behind the wheel within local jurisdiction will mean an occasion of feeding on fat wallets. One might think that this would work for the Filipino since the street crocodiles will be eyeing other prey, but it is more likely that they would steer clear from foreigners and make up for the fish that got away through double and renewed efforts of perverted patronizing of hardworking and honest family men. This scenario is made possible by the colonial conditioning of being intimidated and unsure of foreigners, more so from those belonging to past colonial masters.

More than the swift imposition of this arrangement, the Philippine government should first ensure that these looming threats be adequately addressed. It is the primary function of the government to promote the security and welfare of the people. While relations with other countries are important, our culture has conditioned us to take care of our own first.

That is what this government must do.

Otherwise, traveling down the path to trepidation requires no driver’s license.