MANILA, Philippines — Over half of the 19,086 crimes involving motorcycle-riding suspects recorded since 2016 are still unresolved, according to Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Gen. Debold Sinas.
A total of 19,086 motorcycle crimes have been recorded from 2016 to 2020, Sinas told a Senate blue ribbon committee hearing on Monday.
“Out of these we have solved a total of 9,040 or only 48.87 percent ang na-solve namin sa mga cases na ‘yan,” he said.
The rest are “still under investigation,” Sinas noted.
The blue ribbon committee, chaired by Senator Richard Gordon, is investigating the alleged misfeasance, malfeasance, and nonfeasance in the implementation of the Motorcycle Crime Prevention Act, which was enacted into law 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.
Gordon has repeatedly lamented the “very slow” implementation of the law, which is seen to curb riding-in-tandem killings.
From Jan. 1 to Feb. 13 of this year alone, a total of 50 individuals have been killed by riding-in-tandem assailants.
According to Sinas, the PNP has already activated tactical motorcycle riding units (TMRUs) composed of motorcycle-mounted patrollers, who “can immediately respond to any incident particularly those perpetrated by motorcycle riding suspects.”
“So far po meron na kaming 2,000 na mga pulis na na-train sa motorcycle riding po ng Highway Patrol Group at ginagawan po namin ng paraan para ma-prevent iyung karagdagang insidente,” the PNP chief said.
(So far we have 2,000 police officers trained in motorcycle riding by the Highway Patrol Group and we are doing our part to prevent an increase to such incidents.)