Today, as we were entering the North Wing parking of SM Mall Of Asia, a car rammed us from the back thereby, causing several scratches in the fiber glass part of my brother's 2001 RAV4. Now I know that the damage can be ignored and I know that my brother would probably not have it repaired but how the accident happened is something I cannot turn a blind eye to. Let me expound. We were in line so we can get into the building while a black Honda car was trying to cut the line. My brother was already ahead of him but he was insistent in cutting the line. He should have braked already but did not and so, inevitably, he hit the left rear of our vehicle. My brother alighted the RAV4 a few seconds after we got rammed. The other driver who is in his early or late forties, am not sure, chose not to alight. He waited for my brother to knock on his window. I supposed he wanted to pretend that his car never touched our vehicle. He did not even want to check if damage has been done to his vehicle. When finally he alighted his car, he insisted that it was neither of us at fault. Another interpretation of what he was saying is that it was my brother's fault because his car backed up. Hello! My brother's car is automatic. This provoked me. Real bad.
If there is anything I hate the most, it's liars. I hate that he was lying to us, not admitting that he was in the wrong. That he really was cutting the line, which explains his very awkward position in traffic. He refused to accept logical reasoning and I was hopelessly trying to explain to him. I was really nearing hysterical. In retrospect, I regret the way I treated him. It was un-Christian of me. I am sorry but I am only human and very vulnerable to losing my patience. I do not have patience for people who like to pretend that there are no laws of Physics that we mere mortals have to follow whether we choose to or not. I hate having mimicked the way he spoke because I was getting frustrated that he seemed to not understand what I was saying. It was indeed racist of me to mimic his poor Filipino. I hate talking to foreigners who cannot speak fluent Filipino or fluent English. If you can't speak either language, get the hell out of our country. Okay, that was just inhospitable but I just do not like it that he is in our country and yet he has the balls to lie about what has transpired. After a few minutes of discussion, he finally admitted that it was his fault, if we really wanted it that way, he said. He was willing to pay for the damages for 500 bucks. What?! I do not think we can have it repaired for a measly 500 bucks. I explained to him that there is a Toyoto Manila Bay five minutes away from us and if he truly believes that the damage is not as big as we think it is then we can easily prove that by going to Toyota Manila Bay. He insisted that we go to a place that he knows that repairs car. I told him that we cannot possibly agree to that because that will just inconvenience us further. He was insisting that we do that. Seeing that this will not be settled any time soon. I asked one of the guards to call the police. We were lucky because the police got into the accident area soon and they saw that we were rammed from behind and so it was not our fault clearly. It was the other car's fault. He told us that if we cannot settle the matter then and there, we will go to the Task Enforcers Group Office to discuss the matter. There will have to be trials and it will be a long arduous process thus, inconveniencing both parties. We still argued some more until he still would not settle and so my brother and I decided to just go to the TEG office. Then he settled. He gave my brother 2000 bucks for the damages. I originally asked for 3000 bucks which was the estimate for the damages done on my friend's car similar to what we had. It took us several minutes to settle this. It was exhausting and I hated it.
We could have had a normal conversation if he only chose not to lie but I guess that's the reflex of anyone in the wrong, be defensive. I know I should have been more patient and more civil. I guess, my quick temper got the better of me, as it always does whenever I get into an accident. I feel bad about how I treated the man, especially since he was older than I was. I was being self-righteous and I am sorry for that. However, I also know that this experience would teach him better. I hope it will. I just do not like how he behaved in traffic and how he behaved after he inconvenienced someone. The least he could have been was to be apologetic but instead he pinned the blame on us. I was really shaking earlier, not because I was scared, but because I was so mad. I was angry that he has reached that age and he thought he could manipulate us and the events that have transpired. He thought he could really brainwash us into believing that we were in the wrong. Sorry mister, but that is no way to treat the youth of today. If you think that you are talking to clueless people, you're not. Next time, just admit you're wrong to save yourself from a long painful discussion. Next time, I will also learn to just call the police and be civil about it after all, I did not get anything out of it but a tanned skin and probably a couple of wrinkles.
Oh well... You live, you learn.
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