Senator Dick Gordon stressed that Republic Act 11235 or the Motorcycle Crime Prevention Act of 2019 will finally give justice to victims of riding-in-tandem criminals.
“This would provide greater chances for crimes perpetrated by criminals on board motorcycles to be solved.”
Gordon, principal author and sponsor of the law, explained that the object of the bill is to ensure that motorcycle license plates will be readable so that people can easily see them as this would provide greater chances for crimes done by motorcycle-riding criminals to be solved and the perpetrators arrested.
“We have the motorcycle law to ensure that we curb the still rampaging riding-in-tandem assassinations. Araw-araw may binabaril, ang purpose ng batas na ito ay para may pag-asa ang tao na kapag may namaril makikita ang plaka nila. May laban yung nabaril, may laban na yung komunidad whose peace had been disturbed. This is really anti-crime, it will take a big bite out of crime. You know we get used to these killings until it bites us all on our own behind then we will complain,” the veteran legislator said.
Thus, to ensure that there will be no diversion from its purpose, the seasoned lawmaker is in constant communication with the Land Transportation Office (LTO) as the agency drafts the law’s implementing rules and regulations (IRR).
“The plate should be readable even from a distance of up to 15 meters.”
The senator recently met with the LTO to discuss the color-scheme for the number plates and the number of alpha-numeric characters that they should only bear to make them readable even from a distance of up to 15 meters. He added this would prevent the IRR from being tweaked and changing the law as crafted by the Senate, which would only defeat the purpose of the law, as well as cost the government time and money.
“Sabi ko lima lang dapat characters at saka gawin nating isang kulay bawat rehiyon. Halimbawa, pag Central Luzon – pula; pag Maynila, blue. Parang Subic, color-coded. And you can repeat the numbers once in every region. Because pag nilagay mo sa computer yan, you have narrowed down the search. Or even if you only get three numbers, you can narrow down the search to a particular color. Intindihin sana akong mabuti because importante ‘yan. Pinaguusapan pa namin, we’re going to meet with them,” he said.
Records from the Philippine National Police show that on average, four people are killed daily by riding-in-tandem gunmen. Of the total of 28,409 motorcycle riding crimes or incidents reported from 2010 to 2017, 13,062 or 46% of which were shooting incidents. while out of over 4,000 motorcycle riding crimes or incidents in 2016, only eight cases (0.18%) were solved.