‘Doble Plaka’ Act amendment pushed
SENATOR Robinhood Padilla on Tuesday joined motorcycle riders in backing efforts to amend the “mapaniil (repressive)” and potentially unsafe Republic Act 11235 (Motorcycle Crime Prevention Act) or locally known as the “Doble Plaka” Act.
In his interpellation of Senate Bill 2555, which seeks to amend RA 11235, Padilla said the current law does not seem to achieve its goal of stopping “riding-in-tandem” crimes.
Padilla noted that the Land Transportation Office may not be able to implement the law properly because while some 1.4 million motorcycles are registered, more than 10 million are not.
He pointed out a potential threat to riders if the Doble Plaka law requires them to mount plates on the front and back of their motorcycles, which are not designed to accommodate a license plate in the front.
Senator Francis Tolentino, one of the authors and the sponsor of Senate Bill 2555, cited data from the Philippine National Police Highway Patrol Group showing that out of 1.412 million motorcycles registered as of October 2023, a minuscule 57 were linked to “riding-in-tandem” crimes.
Tolentino added the law would negatively affect Filipinos who use their motorcycles to bring their wives to work, their children to school, and for their livelihood as delivery riders.
“Hindi sila kriminal… Hindi natin sila dapat ituring na kriminal,” he said.
Senator JV Ejercito, another author of SB 2555, said the backlog is one reason he authored the measure.
