BACOLOD CITY – Police destroyed at least 250 motorcycle open pipe mufflers in Barangay Granada here on Tuesday, September 5, due to the disturbance it caused to some residents especially during night time.
Police Major Joery Puerto, head of Police Station 5, said that these mufflers were confiscated in Barangays Granada and Alangilan since January of this year.
Puerto said that he received many complaints about loud mufflers when he was reassigned to the police station last June, prompting him to intensify the campaign against it.
Puerto said that he was informed that some riders were racing in the upland part of these barangays, causing noise pollution.
He cited City Ordinance 356, an ordinance regulating noise pollution in the City of Bacolod, and Article IV, Section 34, of Republic Act (RA) 4136 or the Land Transportation and Traffic Code, as basis for the confiscation of open pipe mufflers.
Under RA 4136, every motor vehicle propelled by an internal combustion engine shall be equipped with a muffler, and whenever said motor vehicle passes through a street of any city, municipality, or thickly populated district or barrio, the muffler shall not be cut out or disconnected.
No motor vehicle shall be operated in such a manner as to cause it to emit or make any unnecessary or disagreeable odor, smoke, or noise.
Puerto said that once an open pipe muffler is confiscated, the motorcycle will not be released to the owner, unless he will change its accessory.