Corruption

Sometimes I get really tired of dealing with all the corruption here in the Philippines. I am not saying there isn't corruption in the US, but at least there are rules that everyone plays by. This week I dropped my dad off at the airport. His flight left at 6pm, so I needed to have him there by mid afternoon. There is one corner where the cops always camp out...day and night. And of course, on my way home I got pulled over. I was in the left lane of traffic that was turning right (There are two lanes that turn right). The cop told me he wanted to take my license and ticket me P2000 for reckless driving. We both knew it was a bogus claim. Finally, after 20 minutes of round and round conversation, he wrote me a ticket for not following traffic signs for P150. Tonight, after dropping my mom off at the airport at 3am, we were stopped at the same corner by the same cops. Kris was in the right lane this time, and the cop told him that he couldn't make a right hand turn in a right lane, but only at this intersection in Manila. There were no signs. It is just one of those things you just gotta know. Basically, it is a known fact that no matter what you do you can count on being stopped and fined there. But you can count on being stopped for a bribe from cops almost anywhere in Manila, whereas I could count on being stopped by cops in the US if I didn't follow the traffic laws. Part of the reason we get stopped is that we have white skin, and they think we have lots of money. It gets old getting jipped on prices at stores, getting targeted by cops, and being harrassed by people on the streets for money just because of our light skin color. I won't miss this when we leave the Philippines.