MANILA, Philippines — After the Land Transportation Office (LTO) took a beating at a Senate hearing Thursday, a piqued Senator Richard Gordon said he would call for a blue ribbon investigation into the agency’s failure to enforce a law designed to curb riding-in-tandem killings.
“I will now call a formal hearing of the blue ribbon committee motu propio. We will now call you why you should not be charged for malfeasance and nonfeasance,” Gordon, chair of the blue ribbon committee, said.
It was Gordon’s other committee, the justice and human rights panel, that conducted Thursday’s hearing into the recent spate of killings in the country.
“This is too much. We’re trying to solve the problems of killings,” he added.
Before this, Gordon lashed out at the LTO after he was informed that only 1,000 plates have been produced under the Motorcycle Crime Prevention Act.
“I don’t like to make threats. But 1,000? This bill was passed two years ago,” the senator said.
“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?” he added.
Passed in 2019, the motorcycle law seeks to secure and safeguard the citizenry from crimes committed using motorcycles by 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 saw.
LTO Operations Division chief Atty. Mercy Jane Paras-Leynes then clarified to the committee that the number of motorcycle plates so far produced is one million.
“I was just informed now through Viber that it’s already one million MC plates as of today, not 1,000 as previously reported, we apologize for the confusion,” she said.
In response, Gordon insisted that it was not “confusion” but “incompetence” on the part of LTO.
“It’s called incompetence. You do not come here and tell us 1,000 tapos ‘pag ka thrineaten kayo ng blue-ribbon investigation magiging one million,” the senator said.
(It’s called incompetence. You do not come here and tell us 1,000 and then if you’re threatened with a blue ribbon investigation, you say it’s 1 million.)
“Do you think we’re fools here? You’re insulting the intelligence of the Senate. You better prove that you have one million and I want to see it,” he added.
Other senators echoed Gordon’s frustration. Senator Joel Villanueva, for one, said the law’s delayed implementation is “unacceptable.”
“We worked hard for the passage of the law, but they’re not implementing the law,” he said.
Senator Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa, a former national police chief, said the implementation of the law would have helped curb riding-in-tandem crimes.
“Plate numbers really helps a lot when it comes to indentifying suspects, lalung-lalo na kung masunod yung batas na in-author mo (Gordon) na mas malaki yung plate number mas klarong-klaro talaga ang identification ng suspects,” Dela Rosa said.
(Plate number really helps a lot when it comes to identifying suspects, especially if your law is followed that motorcycle plates are made bigger to help in the identification of suspects.)
‘Very strong’ letter to DOTr, LTO chiefs
Gordon also instructed the justice and human rights committee secretary to write a letter to DOTr Secretary Arthur Tugade and LTO chief Edgar Galvante about the “very, very slow implementation of the law.”
The senator said his committee will also send letters to several LTO officials for not attending the hearing and “for not doing their work.”
“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 on this very very slow implementation of the law,” Gordon said.