The first time I experienced solicitation for a bribe was during a trip to Manila. We had chartered a Jeepney in Laguna and were close to Malate on Roxas Boulevard when a police officer stopped us at about noon. The officer told us that our driver had made "an illegal" U-turn and had to pay PHP 500.00 penalty.

       I pointed out that the officer must have been mistaken since we had been driving straight along the boulevard for about 15 minutes. The officer gave me a disdainful look that said "I absolutely do not care". Instead he pointed at the feet of our driver and made clear that wearing slippers while driving was against the law of the Republic of the Philippines. The penalty for this was PHP 500.00 as well.  In order to avoid a whole lot of unasked for troubles the driver paid immediately. These situations seem to happen often during lunch time, the driver explained, and he believed it was just bad luck for him this time or maybe this occurred because his passenger was a foreigner. Based on the fee we had agreed on, it was clear to me that this unfortunate driver would be working all day for nothing, so I decided to reimburse him. That was the first time I paid a bribe albeit indirectly - it would not be the last. This matter left me with a lot to ponder about because this happens often and not only to foreigners like me, but especially to Filipinos. It surely called forth the question: "Why doesn't anyone do something?"