Gordon: Doble plaka implementation slow, riding-in-tandem crimes continue

Sen. Gordon says 'doble plaka' could have stopped this

Senator Richard Gordon continues to berate the Land Transportation Office’s (LTO) slow implementation of RA 11235, more popularly known to the motorcycle community as the “Doble Plaka Law”.

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“Ano ba yan? That’s why we have a lot of killings using motorcycles! Shame on you! Shame on the LTO! Is LTO a do-nothing agency?” said Sen. Gordon, after asking LTO Operations Division chief, Mercy Jane Paras-Leynes, how many motorcycle plates have been produced so far to which the latter responded with “1,000”.

“The new motorcycle plate design under RA 11235, we have partially produced 1,000 plates, according to the data given by our plate-making plant,” said Paras-Leynes in Filipino.

Paras-Leynes, shortly afterward, corrected her previous statement, to which she said she was informed via Viber that it was 1,000,000 units of motorcycle plate numbers, and not 1,000. The senators were not impressed, and instead, became more aggravated.

“It’s called incompetence. You do not come here and tell us 1,000, then tell us it was 1-million when threatened with a blue-ribbon investigation,” said the furious Sen. Gordon.

“Do you think we’re fools here? You’re insulting the intelligence of the Senate. You better prove that you have 1-million and I want to see it,” Gordon added.

Former PNP chief, senator Ronald “Bato” Dela Rosa, supported senator Gordon’s sentiments and has said that full implementation of the Doble Plaka law would’ve helped a lot in solving the problem of riding-in-tandem criminals.

“Plate numbers really helps a lot when it comes to identifying suspects, especially if the law authored by Sen. Gordon was followed that required bigger number plates [on motorcycles] and can easily identify suspects,” said Sen. Dela Rosa.

Senator Gordon then went to instruct the Justice and Human Rights Committee secretary to write a “strong letter” to secretary Arthur Tugade of the Department of Transportation (DOTr) and assistant secretary, Edgar Galvante, of LTO, because they are very slow in implementing the law that he authored (doble plaka).

“The committee secretary is instructed to write a letter, a very strong one, to the [Cabinet Secretary] in-charge, secretary Art Tugade, and to the LTO commissioner [Galvante] on this very very slow implementation of the law,” Gordon said.