EDITORIAL - Remember this campaign?

A few months ago there was a renewed campaign against vehicles without license plates. There was a good reason for that: criminals almost always use stolen vehicles or those with stolen plates. Law enforcers are supposed to be on the lookout for such vehicles, but the effort has always been a seasonal thing in this land of ningas cogon. The last time the campaign was pursued with vigor was when Angelo Reyes, as secretary of the interior, launched the "No Plate, No Travel" campaign.

We are reminded of the campaign only when yet another brazen crime is perpetrated, and we find out that the getaway vehicle used stolen license plates. This was the case in the murder of Delfinito Albano, mayor of Ilagan town in Isabela province. Albano was gunned down by three men at past 11 p.m. Tuesday in Barangay Laging Handa. Police counted at least 19 bullet wounds.

The getaway vehicle, a Revo, used license plates that were traced to a RAV-4 registered under the name of a resident of Project 6, Quezon City. There was no report about the missing license plates; the RAV-4 owners told police they discovered that the vehicle’s rear license plate was missing only yesterday morning.

For something like the "No Plate, No Travel" campaign to succeed, public cooperation is needed. Motorists who don’t want trouble with the police must bear in mind that if their vehicles’ license plates are stolen, the plates could be used for crime. The problem is that a carjacking is immediately reported but the theft of license plates does not have the same urgency.

Any loss of license plates must be reported immediately. Police and transportation officials should complement this with a computerized network to flash an alert for missing vehicles or license plates. This is no longer impossible; police stations in key cities now use computers.

VIPs must do their part by making sure their vehicles bear proper license plates. No one can be exempted from vehicular registration rules. Even if VIPs and ordinary motorists do not give their full cooperation, law enforcers must do their job and be on the lookout for vehicles with missing license plates. Those plates could be on the getaway vehicles of bank robbers, kidnappers and hired guns.