Me and my wife had a very unpleasant experience yesterday at Marilaque.
To make this account of events as short as possible let me start off with this,
From Regina Rica where we heard mass early on, we drove back to Manila taking the same route as we did going up, there were several cars and vans driving down those zig zag roads during that time as it was midday, many were parked along those cafes and restos swarmed by different make of motorcycles and few cars, we were driving behind a slow moving van for a long time and behind us were two scooter riders, on the opposite lane were cars and motorcycles, some were rolling just fine others were riding like Rossi’s, as i grow tired following the slow moving van i decided to make a safe pass from a straight spot doing it a bit fast so i can go back to my lane, as i went back to my lane about three or four fast riding scooters came on the opposite side the one in front even raising his fist as we pass each other about two meters apart others who were following him were much farther from us, so we drove on because i knew it wasn’t even close to think much about it, after a while i noticed a pack of riders were at my back, rode in front us and to the side and boxed us, my wife got a bit scared, i rolled down the window and ask them why, the one on my side shouted “someone crashed a mile back and you ran away” so i said what? I was forced to park on side of the road and there these riders came al yelling at us from all sides to turn back, there were about two dozens of them all looking mad and ready to mob us if i answered them back. I have no choice but to explain calmly as i could not to give them a reason to mob us, my wife at that point was real scared, i tried to explain what i remembered and offered to review my dash cam but to no avail, they were all F’n mad even though i’m sure that if there really was someone who witnessed it only the two riders who was riding behind us, to make this short, hesitant as we were to drive back to the so called scene of the accident, we were forced escorted by by a swarm of these angry riders, there, the one in front signaled to the others crowding the scene here are them, the one we passed by as went to side was already yelling and was about to hit us with a helmet not even knowing what really went down. Some have calmed down a bit so i went outside to see the one who fell, he was standing with some minor scratch and with his kid who was with him they say, wasn’t even shaken, again i offered to all of the to review the video, they all refused to watch it, luckily two patrol vans filled with cops passed by, i flagged them down and asked for assistance, at this point the “victim” has almost admitted that i never came close to him and that he miscalculated and ended on shoulder of the road. As i give my side to the cops, the other kamote riders were urging the “victim” to file a complaint and ask for damages, the fallen rider at some point was ready to just settle for my apology because he know damn well i have nothing to do with his fall, next thing i know cops was obliged to bring us to their HQ because of prodding of kamote riders, so went, at the HQ, the fallen co-riders keep on urging him to press charges against me, again i offered to the Desk officer to please review the dashcam vid, and he did after sometime going back and forth with the cam the officer finally watched what really took place and showed it to “victim” and his two aggressive co riders that really i was too far from them that will cause his accident, my wife offered them 1k to buy some medicines at first, but before the video was viewed, they were trying to sum up the damages, the scooter,?the helmets, his scrapes his kid’s concussion, everything, until we said, ok let’s just proceed with your complaint and let the court decide, take this 1K as our help to you or file the charges, then after conferring with the cops and his companions they finally agreed to just take 1K and signed an agreement to settle. The cops let us go and the “victim” stayed until we finally went our way.
What a shame on some of these kamote riders who are so willing to put blame on caged drivers when they know damn well most of their accidents are from their own doing. Please let this be a lesson to all drivers especially when you’re driving a small car, this kamote riders mob mentality will eventually endanger some of us.

BTW, I have a forty year driving experience and also ride scooters on some days!

Thanks!


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