If you are not familiar with driving in Marikina, be careful!

In the strict city of Marikina, my first unexpected traffic violation

Next to my town is the famous city of Marikina, it is known being the shoe capital of the Philippines. More than this trademark, this city also holds the title of one of the cleanest cities in our country.

The latter is not just a story but a reality, if you would walk around the city you will notice that too.

The road, sidewalk of many establishments, and even the wet market areas are clean.

 I really admire Marikina city in terms of maintaining the cleanliness as much as possible. We know that doing this will need hard work, and it is not easy.

Not being bias, but if comparing Marikina to other cities, it looks that most Marikenos are law-abiding citizens. This simple manner is one of the proof that they have a good leader.

COVID-19 Rules and Regulations

With the current pandemic, Marikina is one of the cities that strictly implementing the COVID19 protocols.

In my experience, all establishments are strict in ensuring that everyone entering their premises are wearing masks and face shield.

Personally experiencing this makes me feel comfortable roaming around this city. I know all these efforts are not guarantying that the place is totally virus free. But this action will give a little peace of mind that everyone you can encounter is following the protocols.

Traffic Regulations and Violation

Aside from the many strict rules that Marikina is implementing, they are also respecting the traffic rules and regulations.

If you are not very familiar with driving in this city, I am warning you. Stop, Look, and Listen.

For the past 3 months of driving here, I have noticed in many cities that drivers are not respecting the traffic signals.

Some are not stopping even if it’s already in red light. While the pedestrians are crossing even if it is in go signal. Witnessing this disobedient attitude of many gives me a headache.

But in Marikina, drivers are very careful in following these rules. Unless they want to get hefty traffic fines.
Same with them I am very cautious driving here, my eyes are wide open to not hitting the pedestrian crossing line even during traffic.

However, no matter how careful you are in driving there are many unavoidable scenarios that will happen, like what just happened to me a week ago.

As I’ve shared in my previous blog, I got a second-hand car. All the minor issues have been fixed already and I was confident enough since I already brought it in many places.

I have driven it around the city of San Mateo, Montalban, Marikina, Manila, and Antipolo. The hardest road it encounters was in one place in Antipolo, rough and high stiff mountain road. With that, I can say it is already in good condition.

My First Traffic Violation

Last week, I went to Cainta and Sumulong area to do some errands. I have noticed weird changes in my car engine, I felt that every time I am driving fast it seems the gear is changing. 

Hubby and I didn’t pay attention to that so much, thinking it is no big issue. Since we are using it from 09:00 am, from San Mateo going to Marikina, Cainta, and Ayala Mall Marikina.

By 2:45 we are on the road going back home. We are already in Bayan Marikina when suddenly, all the lights indicator turn on and off. Exactly after we turn right on the Marikina clock tower signals, the car stop.

Good thing I manage to put it on the most right side, almost near to gutter. We hurriedly went out of the car to check what happened. In just a second there is one police riding in his flashy motor approaches us. He said “remove the car fast or he will give me a fine, I said, ok I will and we are doing our best to fix it.

Then one of his team, walking fast towards us holding a machine and telling me that they will give me ten minutes to fix it or else I will get a penalty.

We tried to explain to him that we are figuring out what to do, and why the car just suddenly stop. 

But still, he was so pushy and pressuring us to move it in 10 minutes if not he will call the tow service and give us a fine.

Explaining my situation seems useless as he is not listening. He just said that this is the rule in all the cities in the Philippines, to avoid creating traffic, even though it is not our mistake.

I ask him if what help he can give us, as we are all pressures on him. The only solution he has is to call the tow service.

My knees are shaking thinking that Php 2500.00 (tow service price) will fly away from my pocket as easy as that.

Thankfully there is one guy who helps us and gave us an idea of what to do. We look for a taxi driver to borrow a battery as the man has an idea in the car engine, as per him it might be a battery or alternator issue.

So that is what we did, thankfully the taxi driver we found has complete tools and he knows what to do in this matter fast. He found out that we have a problem with the alternator.

The solution he did was swap our batteries. As per his explanation, the issue of why our car suddenly stops is because the electrical power to charge the battery is not enough due to an alternator problem. Something like that (lols) hard to explain for a zero car engine knowledge like me.

To cut my story short, we use his battery until we found the alternator repair shop. We are following him going to the nearest car repair shop he knows. And yeah he was right, the issue is the alternator. We are so thankful to him we save the fines and tow service charges. As gratitude, we gave him a simple amount for the hassle and help.

And about the traffic enforcer, thankfully it was traffic, the tow service didn’t arrive in 20 minutes. He cancels the tow service when he saw that the car engine is starting. He just reminds us to be careful next time.

By the way, while the taxi driver was assisting us there is another officer came and want to give a penalty to the taxi driver. But we explain that he is just helping us, he said ok but make it fast. 

Wow, I never thought that Marikina is not just strict about city cleanliness but very strict as well in traffic ordinance.

I am just thankful that it went well, and we skipped the expensive cost of this unwanted situation.

Like what I mentioned above, if you will be driving in Marikina be careful and make sure your car is in good condition.

 

Steps in Buying a Second-Hand Car – Philippines

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