By Even before a young executive's recorded outburst against a traffic enforcer grabbed the social media spotlight, another "road rage" took place, a video of which is also circulating online.
The video showed a motorist slapping a taxi driver, who also fought back while inside the car.
A blog post said the confrontation supposedly took place Aug. 10 along Julia Vargas Street in Ortigas, after a taxi allegedly scratched the rear bumper of a gold Toyota sedan.
Meanwhile, road rage incidents resurrects a bill filed by Senator Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos.
License revokation and lifetime disqualification from reapplication--apart from legal liability for physical injury, damage to property, grave threats or oral defamation--are among the penalties for road rage offenders sought under the bill.
If approved, Senate Bill 2923 or the "Road Rage Law," will also mandate the Land Transportation Office to conduct mandatory driving and anger management seminars to offenders as well as similar seminars which the public may attend on a voluntary basis.
"This bill hopes to once and for all stamp road rage as an unnecessary and reprehensible evil, and define such as a circumstance that could aggravate, or even qualify, an offense occasioned by it," Marcos said in the bill's explanatory note.
"[W]e need higher penalties and sanctions and stricter laws and rules on this matter," he added.
The bill is still pending at the committee level in the Senate since it was filed in July 2011.
Other cases of road rage went extreme, with gun involvement.
One such case involved Paulino Elevado, a customs officer at the Manila port who allegedly shot a college student's van in January this year.
The incident also became controversial as Elevado, whose monthly salary should be at about $250, was driving a Porsche worth about $120,000. Elevado eventually resigned amid administrative and criminal charges.
In September 2011, another MMDA officer also figured in a road rage incident and ended up being shot five times in his abdomen, hands and arms. Traffic enforcer Larry Fiala said he was chasing suspect Edward John Gonzales for his number code violation.
