Philippines
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LTO, various groups join hands to reclaim Marilaque from 'kamote riders'
LTO, various groups join hands to reclaim Marilaque from 'kamote riders'
The death of a motovlogger after a dangerous motorcycle stunt on Marilaque Road in Rizal last month has sparked awareness on the necessity of road safety and prompted motorcycle clubs to act on the concerns, the Land Land Transportation Office (LTO) said.
On Sunday, Feb. 2, LTO chief Assistant Secretary Atty. Vigor D. Mendoza and Sen. JV Ejercito led hundreds of motorcycle riders representing various biker's clubs on a motorcade aimed at reclaiming Marilaque Road from undisciplined and abusive motorcycle riders (locally referred to as kamote riders) which placed the entire biking community in the country in bad light.
Dubbed as “Make Marilaque Road Safe Again”, Mendoza said the move is also supported by the private sector and even corporate groups which committed support to more education and training for motorcycle riders.
“It is unfortunate that it took one person to pass away in order to awaken all of us. But we will take advantage of this momentum to promote road safety not only here along Marilaque but also in all parts of the country,” said Mendoza.
He was referring to the incident last month wherein two motovloggers were seen in a viral video doing a “Superman stunt” using their motorcycles in one of the dangerous curves of Marilaque Road.
One of them, however, accidentally hit the motorcycle of motovlogger John Louie Arguelles, resulting in the crash that eventually killed him.
Both the LTO and the Philippine National Police (PNP) have committed to beef up the visibility of their respective personnel on dangerous zones of Marilaque Road where erring motorcycle riders usually show off their stunts.
Danger zones
Police, however, admitted that the 115-kilometer Marilaque Road is too long to be covered by uniformed personnel. But they said the focus of the police visibility are the usual accident-prone areas of the road.
Based on the PNP data, the Palo Alto in Tanay Rizal where the so-called Devil’s Curve is located, as well as the Palo Alto- Mt. Masungi area, are the areas where motorcycle riders usually converge.
The incident involving Arguelles was the 13th accident along Marilaque Road this year. In 2024, the PNP-HPG recorded a total of 158 road accidents along Marilaque Road, most of them in the Palo Alto area.
Disturbing figures
In its report, the PNP-HPG said there are around 31,000 road accidents reported across the country in 2024 with a total of 2,747 fatalities.
A total of 47,206 vehicles, according to the PNP-HPG report, were involved in the accidents in 2024— more than 15,000 of them involved motorcycles and more than 17,000 were four-wheel vehicles.
Based on the PNP-HPG collated data, the number of road accidents actually has been on the rise since 2021 with only 7,585 road accidents recorded. Ballooned to 15,045 in 2022 and in 2023, the number of road accidents across the country was recorded as 24,495.
“I personally saw the road accident figures from HPG and I was saddened because of the number of deaths,” said Mendoza.
“One death due to a road accident is too many. That is why we have been aggressively advocating for road safety. Our objective this year is to reduce at least by half the number of road accidents that occurred in 2024,” he added.
Last year, the LTO launched the “Stop Road Crash” campaign amid the rising number of road accidents across the country.
Enforcement not enough
While no apprehensions were recorded since the viral accident late last month, Mendoza said strict enforcement of traffic rules and regulations is not enough to avoid accidents on the road, as he emphasized the necessity of education and training.
For the education and training, he said they will maximize the commitment made by the private sector to provide the necessary training and to reach as many motorists across the country.
On the part of the LTO, Mendoza earlier said that the processes in approving a driver’s license will be further intensified.
“Of course, education and training will be complemented by enforcement which includes visibility of our enforcers and other law enforcement agencies like the PNP. The mere presence of men in uniform will certainly remind the motorists to observe proper road courtesy and discipline,” said Mendoza.
“The private sector is very active and even the corporate groups so we will take advantage of this momentum to push for our goal of making our roads safe. Karamihan ng mga aksidente ay kayang iwasan and this is what we are going to instill in the minds of our motorists,” he added.