With the approval of the amendments to the Republic Act 11235, otherwise known as “Motorcycle Crime Prevention Act", there will be no more "doble plaka" (double plates) for motorcycles.
Senate Majority Leader Francis Tolentino reported on Tuesday, Jan. 14, the approval of the bicameral conference committee report on the disagreeing provision of the House and Senate bill amending Republic Act 11235, otherwise known as “Motorcycle Crime Prevention Act", wherein the reconciled bill will be An Act Rationalizing the Safety Measures and Penalties Relative To The Operation of Motorcycles, Amending for the Purpose Republic Act No. 11235, Otherwise Known As The “Motorcycle Crime Prevention Act".
Antipolo City 2nd district Rep. Romeo Acop thanked the Senate panel "for not making our lives hard here".
"We're happy that at least we have come up with new legislation as far as the needs of the times are concerned," he said.
Senator Joseph Victor "JV" Ejercito said that it's better that everyone gets their plates since there is currently a nine-million backlog with the Land Transportation Office (LTO).
"Mas mabuti nang lahat may plaka, kaysa nga dalawa nga, ‘di naman maibigay (It's better for everyone to have a license plate, rather than having two that can't be issued). In terms of crime prevention, what is very important is for all the motor vehicles, specifically motorcycles, would have their plate numbers," he said.
"And then, but we retained, yun pong essence pa rin, you know, yung mga intention to use the vehicles, for example, motorcycle for crime, mayroon pa rin pong imprisonment at mayroon pa rin pong fines – yun pong may intention. So that's basically the main provisions of the amendment to the “Motorcycle Crime Prevention Act"," he added.
The provision to add RFIDs infront of motorcycles was also removed. Initially, there was a proposal for the installation of RFID stickers at the front portion of the motorcycle instead of the original decal plates for the safety of the motorcycle riders.
"It's because the LTO, nagkakaroon sila ng problema…now if it's causing more delays, ang intention natin is to address the backlogs," Ejercito said.
"The LTO itself said that… nagkakaroon ng problema with RFID, and at the same time, sabi nila, yung plate number alone is enough for the enforcers to verify yung veracity, yung identification, and [whether] the vehicle is a “hot vehicle” sya or not. So yun yung sabi ng LTO. That's why we agreed to delete already the provision of the RFID," he added.
Ejercito also stated that the fines and penalties are now more reasonable from the range of P50,000 to P100,000 was adjusted to below P20,000.
According to Tolentino, the most realistic for the part of LTO to address the backlogs is June 2026.
"Ang problema nila ay yung distribution, kaya nilang gawin yung plaka pero yung pagbibigay kanino man, doon sila nahihirapan (Their problem is with distribution. They can make the plates, but they struggle with delivering them to whoever needs them)," he added.