With the increasing number of motorcycle riding-in-tandem-related crimes in the country, Senator Dick Gordon stated that motorcycle riding assassins should be arrested and stressed that such crimes should be stopped immediately in the name of public safety.
Gordon has been condemning the killings committed by motorcycle-riding gunmen and has been consistently reiterating his call for the Land Transportation Office (LTO) to finish drafting the implementing rules and regulations (IRR) of the Motorcycle Crime Prevention Act of 2019 or R.A. 11235, which he sponsored and authored, so that the law could be implemented immediately.
As the veteran legislator explained, the law’s objective is “to protect the public, and 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.”
According to the law, “the readable number plates must be displayed in both the front and back sides of a motorcycle and shall be made of suitable and durable material as determined by the LTO.”
“The law will make everyone safe.”
The seasoned lawmaker added that the law will make everyone safe.
“One of the salient features of the law is that motorcycles travelling without number plates will be flagged down and fined. Kapag ninakaw ang plate number dapat i-report within three days, ‘pag di nireport ng may-ari, makakasuhan siya,” the senator said.
He expressed concern over the high rate of murder cases in the country involving the use of motorbikes.
“13,062 of the 28,409 motorcycle riding incidents reported from 2010 to 2017 involved killings.”
According to the data of the Philippine National Police (PNP), 13,062 of the 28,409 motorcycle riding incidents reported from 2010 to 2017 involved killings.
One of the controversial reported assassinations related to riding-in-tandem incidents was the ambush of activist-lawyer Benjie Ramos who was killed in November last year in Kabankalan City, Negros Occidental after helping the families of nine farmers who were shot dead by unknown attackers in the province.
Several shooting incidents were also reported recently.
Ellen Dacanay, Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) field officer, was shot dead in Manila on November 4.
Ilocos Sur Judge Mario Anacleto Bañez was killed in ambush in San Fernando, La Union, while Police Lieutenant Ernesto Mendoza was shot and killed by gunmen on a motorcycle in Barangay Teachers Village, Quezon City. Both were murdered on November 5.
And just last November 7, radio broadcaster Dindo Generoso from Dumaguete City was shot dead by gunmen who were arrested just hours ago after the incident.
Gordon strongly condemned the assassinations.
“The police should really act with dispatch to solve these killings; these motorcycle-riding in tandem cowards are killing with impunity. They fearlessly execute people even in broad daylight and in plain view of witnesses because they can get away easily,” he stressed.