Gordon blames zero enforcement of motorcycle law for unabated ‘tandem’ killings

MANILA, Philippines — Saying that the continued killings by riding-in-tandem gunmen are “worst” than the COVID-19 pandemic, Senator Richard Gordon chastised law enforcement authorities for not enforcing the Motorcycle Crime Prevention Act, over a year since it was signed into law.

During his privilege speech on Tuesday, Gordon said riding-and-tandem incidents have killed more people than COVID-19.

He said that in 2019, over 1,200 have been killed by motorcycle-riding assassins.

This was higher than the number of COVID-related deaths reported in the country which so far totaled to over 700, Gordon added.

“People have been killed by riding-in-tandem last year more than (COVID-19) has done this year…We cannot forever just shrug our shoulders and say nothing can be done,” he said.

“We cannot tolerate this forever, especially in light of the fact that this is beginning to really make us look very, very weak as a government,” he added.

Gordon delivered his privilege speech following the killing of a Dumaguete-based journalist and radio broadcaster, who was shot dead by riding-in-tandem gunmen last May 5 while he was with his wife on their way home.

The senator said he was “chagrined beyond imagination” over the lack of enforcement of the motorcycle law, which he authored and was enacted in March 2019.

The law seeks 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.

“Yet up to now…there’s been no orders to come out with bigger plates for these motorcycles. Walang kalaban-laban ang tao. Pinapatay ang mga tao, wala tayong testigo,” Gordon said.

He also castigated the Land Transportation Office (LTO) as well as the Philippine National Police (PNP) for supposedly not enforcing the law.

Congress might as well “shut (its) doors” if the laws it crafts would not be enforced, Gordon stressed.

“We in Congress have become totally ineffective. Hindi na sinusunod yung batas natin…It’s over a year now that nothing has been done by LTO. There’s not even an implementing rules and regulations…If the executive (department) does not enforce laws, that is a violation of the Constitution,” he said.

“I cannot countenance that people are killed people are orphaned in front of their families, in broad daylight. How many people have been put to jail? Hardly any. and we say the PNP is doing its job? When it comes to riding-in-tandem, absolutely not. And LTO is not doing its job,” he added.

Gordon, chair of the Senate blue ribbon committee, said he would be willing to open an investigation into why the motorcycle law has yet to be implemented.

“Something must be done,” he said, adding that creating another which could better implement the law can also be considered.

“I don’t want to pick a fight with anybody. I just wanna say, if you cannot do it, step aside,” he added.

It was President Rodrigo Duterte who earlier suspended the implementation of the law only a month after it was enacted, citing that it would be “dangerous to place another gadget” in front of a motorcycle as it could pierce through the rider’s helmet.

Gordon had clarified then that a sticker bearing the registration number will be placed in front of the motorcycle and not a metal or tin plate.

The senator insisted that this misconception, which may have been the same information that reached Duterte, is only being used as propaganda by those against the law.