House panel endorses GMA bill on drunk driving

MANILA, Philippines - What she failed to achieve as president, she hopes to accomplish as a lawmaker.

Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo told the House transportation committee yesterday that having a law against drunk driving was one of her legislative priorities during her nine-year presidency. However, she said the previous Congress, which was dominated by her allies, did not enact such a law.

“That is why I have revived it,” she said, referring to Bill 382, which she filed with her son, Camarines Sur Rep. Diosdado Arroyo, as her co-author.

The transportation committee, chaired by Leyte Rep. Roger Mercado, later voted to approve the bill and five other similar measures in principle and to consolidate them into one proposed law, to be known as the Driving Under the Influence of Alcohol (DUIA) Act of 2010. The panel created a technical working group, chaired by Arroyo, to do the consolidation.

During the hearing, Mercado, a former Arroyo ally who is now with the Liberal Party-led majority in the House, addressed the former leader as “Her Excellency, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.”

The former president appeared titillated and was seen grinning from ear to ear. She told her colleagues that drunk driving is a criminal offense in many countries.

She said there is actually a local law that penalizes driving under the influence of liquor. “This was enacted during the time of my father (the late President Diosdado Macapagal), but there is only a fine of P200 to P500,” she said.

She proposed a fine of P5,000 and suspension of driver’s license for two months for the first offense, a P6,000 fine and license suspension for three months for the second offense, a P7,000 fine and license suspension for six months for the third offense, and a P7,000 fine and revocation of license for succeeding violations.

The other bills seek heavier penalties. Their authors include Reps. Ben Evardone of Eastern Samar, Romeo Acop of Antipolo City and Emmeline Aglipay of the party-list group Diwa.

Under Aglipay’s Bill 2765, a violator would suffer a fine of P5,000 and suspension of license for six months for the first offense, a P10,000 fine and license suspension for one year for the second and a P15,000 fine and revocation of license for the third and succeeding violations.

Additionally, the offender would be required to render community service for one month.

All the six bills define DUIA driving as the “act of operating a motor vehicle while intoxicated with alcohol, by reason of which the driver’s mental and motor skills are impaired, or when the driver’s blood alcohol concentration level is zero point zero six (0.06) or more (Aglipay proposed 0.05) or more.”

DUIA would be determined through “field sobriety tests,” which are defined as “standard tests to assess and determine intoxication, including the horizontal gaze nystagmus, the wall-and-turn and the one-leg stand.”

Aglipay said these are standard procedures in many countries that penalize drunk driving.

Since all bills call for the use of a breath analyzer to determine intoxication, several committee members suggested that it is this equipment that should be used, instead of resorting to “complicated” tests.

Aglipay’s bill also calls for penalties for public utility vehicle owners whose drivers are caught DUIA.