SEN. Richard Gordon yesterday called on the Land Transportation Office to come up with the implementing rules and regulations of RA 11235 or the Motorcycle Crime Prevention Act of 2019 in the wake of recent killings perpetrated by motorcycle-riding criminals.
Gordon said the law had been enacted last March 8 and the LTO is mandated to promulgate the IRR so the law can be implemented within a non-extendible period of 90 days from its effectivity, or 15 days after its publication either in the Official Gazette or in a newspaper of general circulation.
“Where is the IRR for the Motorcycle Crime Prevention Act? Riding-in-tandem assassins are still terrorizing the country. There is no time to tarry; there is an urgent need to implement this law to stop these crimes. The law aims to secure and safeguard the citizenry from crimes committed with the use of motorcycles through imposing bigger, readable and color-coded number plates to make it easier for eyewitnesses to identify the number plates of motorcycles used in crimes that they witness,” Gordon said.
Gordon was referring to the recent killings of Ellen Dacanay, of the Labor Department’s Manila field office, in Malate Manila last Monday afternoon; the killing of Judge Mario Anacleto Banez in Barangay Mameltac in San Fernando City, La Union last Tuesday; and the murder of Police Lt. Ernesto Mendoza in Teachers’ Village, in Quezon City last Tuesday.
They were killed by riding-in-tandem assassins.
“The police must finally look at these killings, these motorcycle-riding in tandem cowards are killing with impunity. They killed an officer of DOLE, a woman at that, in the very streets of Manila, the capital city of our country and in broad daylight too. The next day, a policeman and a judge were killed in other areas too,” he said.
He said the law will make everyone safe since one of the salient features of the law is that motorcycles travelling without plate numbers will be flagged down and its owner fined. In case a motorcycle is stolen, its owner must report the matter within three days otherwise the owner will be charged.
