Lawmakers push higher vehicle registration fees

MANILA, Philippines - Two Mindanao congressmen have proposed higher annual registration fees for people with more than one vehicle.

In House Bill 4950, Cagayan de Oro City Rep. Rufus Rodriguez and his brother Maximo, who represents the party-list group Abante Mindanao, said people with two or more vehicles should contribute more to the upkeep of public roads and to the treatment of pollution-related diseases.

They said data from the Land Transportation Office showed that the number of motor vehicles increased from 5,891,272 in 2008 to 6,220,433 in 2009 and to 6,634,855 in 2010, or an average increase of 6.2 percent per year.

“There are too many vehicles plying the roads and there are not enough roads for them, which results in heavy traffic causing numerous negative effects to all aspects of the lives of the Filipino people,” they said.

“All these vehicles cause too much air pollution, which is harmful to people. The World Health Organization has discovered that as much as 65 percent of the pollutants in the Philippines come from motor vehicles,” they added.

Under Bill 4950, in addition to annual registration fees, a person owning more than one vehicle would be required to pay P3,000 extra for his second vehicle, P5,000 for his third vehicle and P7,000 for his fourth and each subsequent vehicle.