IT was not too long ago when Richard Gordon, then a senator, pushed for his favorite bill which finally became a law, the Motorcycle Crime Prevention Act. Basically, this law imposes stringent fines for failure to register on time the transfer of ownership of a newly-bought unit. It also mandates two license plates to be attached to the unit, one in front and one at the back, which experts say is risky for the riders.
Gordon’s reason for such a law is to discourage the commission of crimes — mainly killings — by riding-in-tandem assailants who make good use of the motorcycle’s ease of movement, especially while escaping from an attack.
Every time a murder is committed, Gordon would say that it should not have happened if the police and other law enforcement agencies implemented the law. In 2019, President Rodrigo Duterte who is an avid motorcycle rider and enthusiast, deferred for one year the implementation of the law, which riders’ groups had long called out as discriminatory.
‘He said the Land Transportation Office should focus on meeting the backlog of motorcycle license plates, adding he has been waiting for five years to get the license plate of one of his motorcycles.’
Another inveterate motorcyclist, Sen. JV Ejercito, has expressed optimism that the Motorcycle Crime Prevention Act can be amended to correct the discriminatory provisions such as huge penalties for failing to transfer registration of units within five days of buying a motorbike.
No equivalent penalty exists for drivers using vehicles not registered under their name.
Ejercito said that motorcyclists have been flagged down at checkpoints and have had to wait for close to an hour to be cleared by police. He said the Land Transportation Office should focus on meeting the backlog of motorcycle license plates, adding he has been waiting for five years to get the license plate of one of his motorcycles.
The senator estimated that around 14 million motorcycles do not have license plates, of which 9 million have old plates that have to be replaced with new ones required by the new law and five million that have yet to be issued plates. If two license plates are used, the backlog would be enormous.
Ejercito filed a bill to amend the “Doble Plaka” law in July 2022 to lower the fines for failure to transfer ownership registration and to replace the second license plate with an RFID sticker that he said would not interfere with a motorcycle’s aerodynamics. Ejercito said the current fine for violating the Motorcycle Crime Prevention Act can go to as much as P100,000 which, he pointed out, approximates the cost of low-level motorcycles.
The Senate Committee on Justice and Human Rights headed by Sen. Francis Tolentino held a hearing on proposed amendments to the Motorcycle Crime Prevention Act. Tolentino said it is most likely that they will propose only one plate per unit, which is the request of many motorcyclist groups, thereby doing away with the “doble plaka” requirement.
It is well that the senators are amenable to amend laws passed in previous congresses if these are found to be impractical and discriminatory.
