MANILA – Sen. Richard Gordon defended the implementation of his law – which requires bigger license plates on motorcycles – that Rodrigo Duterte mulls to suspend.
Gordon said Republic Act (RA) 11235, signed by Duterte last month, aims to curb crimes carried out by “riding-in-tandems.”
“The Motorcycle Crime Prevention Act of 2019 will give justice to the victims of riding-in-tandem shooters who could no longer seek justice themselves because dead men tell no tales,” Gordon said. “Ipinagtatanggol ko lang ang mga taong pinapatay ng mga riding-in-tandem assassins. How do we do justice to this people? You limit the way people can get away with riding without motor plates and riding with stolen motorcycles.”
The senator said he will explain this to the President, who expressed intentions to meet with him and discuss the plan to suspend the implementation of RA 11235.
Duterte said in a speech in Iloilo City on Saturday that he would suspend the law, saying that “it is dangerous to place another gadget near the plate number.”
Gordon noted that the killings perpetrated by gunmen on motorcycles have “plagued” the country for the past 15 years and can be considered “one of the biggest contributors to extrajudicial killings.”
He cited data from the Philippine National Police that showed there were 28,409 motorcycle-riding crimes reported from 2010 to 2017 – 46 percent of which were shooting incidents.
“Give the law a chance, that’s good pero pairalin natin. Kung hindi maganda eh ‘di aayusin natin. Hindi naman tayo sarado ang isip diyan eh,” Gordon said.
He added: “I think that ‘pag tumawag ang Presidente, makikinig ako. I will explain the law. ‘Di ko ‘yun kuwan sa kanya…The only way I can think of is to amend the law pero how can you amend the law na hindi niyo man lang sinubukan.”/PN
