A few years ago, back in the late 1990s, travelling along JP Rizal almost at 9pm, the car ran out of gas (blame it on the unreliable gas gauge). Since I was near the intersection, there were still some MMDA Traffic Enforcers stationed nearby. They came and checked what was going on. Now, instead of giving me a ticket and towing the car away, they got a guy who had a pedicab and asked him to get gas for the car! Of course, I had to pay for the gas, but that was the only charge! This was without prodding or the usual calling card talk! While waiting for the gas, the vacant enforcer and I got into talking, found out about their shifts (6am to 2pm, then 2pm to 10pm), and got talking about the car (this was the 1977 Celica, aka the Batman car). After keeping me company and gassing the car up, they sent me off my way, telling me to be careful.
More recently, last year, I was in a cab and we were negotiating the ramp from SLEX to the Sales bridge. Since this was night time rush hour, the harried MMDA Traffic Enforcer was gesturing all of us to go ahead. Unfortunately, the cab stalled (he couldn’t handle hanging properly), so the cab's engine died for a moment. While we were starting the car, the MMDA guy came up and shouted what the hell was going on. We said the car died, we're just trying to start it so we can go on our way. Again, without any prodding, the MMDA put a rock under the rear wheel so the cab wouldn't reverse accidentally, then waved the other cars out of the way. We got the cab started the next minute, then we went off our way again.
I'd like to add a little positivity this time, especially for the MMDA Enforcers who have been maligned too many times. At least this shows that surely, these examples are the norm and not the exceptions.
