Helmet law deferred? For what reason?

For our special presentation on our talk show Straight from the Sky, we bring you that “Man of all Seasons” Mr. Johnny Litton of “O No! It’s Johnny” fame and currently one of the Philippine Star’s senior society columnists. Indeed, it was a lucky day when we went to the soon-to-be-opened Bellevue Resort in Panglao, Bohol for a pre-opening media (mostly from Manila) gathering. So I brought along my TV crew and I met Mr. Johnny Litton who agreed to do the TV interview with me.

Before I became a journalist… I guess the same thing goes for Johnny Litton, we have known each other when I was just around 20-years old. That’s because Johnny Litton was a close friend of my father Atty. Jesus “Lindong” Avila. We were theater owners and therefore we were called exhibitors, while Johnny Litton was a distributor of films. His film company was called MEVER Films. In those days, my father signed up to show all MEVER Films with Johnny Litton and they didn’t sign a contract… but the deal was sealed by a simple handshake. Those were the days of “Palabra de honor” where a handshake is more bidding than a signed paper contract.

In the past, my father assigned Oriente Theater to show only MGM movies, while the Ideal Theater would show only Warner Bros movies all in one year. Back then; they were called the “Majors.” Johnny Litton’s company was the sign of the times… he was an “Independent” Film Distributor. With that handshake, my father changed the name of Ideal Theater into MEVER Theater. This was in the early 70’s.

As luck would have it… we would end up writing for the Philippine Star, me as a columnist, while Johnny had the better job of writing about the crème dela crème of Manila’s social elite a.k.a. “Glitterati”. Having Johnny Litton on my show was a very enlightening… almost comedic experience. So watch this unique interview with talk show host Johnny Litton on SkyCable’s channel 15 at 8:00 p.m. with replays in MyTV channel 28 at 7:00 a.m., 12:00 noon and 7:00 p.m. on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.

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After months of processing by the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) to provide a safety helmet for our motorcyclists, I read in The Philippine Star last Saturday that no less than Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) Secretary Manuel “Mar” Roxas has ordered the Land Transportation Office (LTO) to defer the enforcement of the Motorcycle Helmet Act of 2009…a.k.a. Republic Act no. 10054.

The official DOTC statement says that the decision to defer was upon the request of DTI to give them more time to inspect all the helmets coming into the country. DTI apparently wants to ensure that all helmets sold in this country would bear the Import Commodity Clearance (ICC) seal issued by the Bureau of Product Standards.

I guess this is also in response to the numerous complaints of the long queues that motorists had to go through in all the DTI offices nationwide. A friend of mine, Mr. Bimboy Magno emailed me a lengthy letter, and since it is too long, let me reprint his disgust… “At the rate they are going at 250 applicants per week or 6,000/mo, they simply cannot cope with the present system! You know, I was just standing there watching the event and all the people under the heat of the sun instead of probably earning a living, and it really makes me wonder how this government and its bureaucracy can make a simple thing so complicated and so screwed-up.”

Mr. Magno also appreciated what we did when we interviewed LTO director Raul Aguilos and DTI’s regional director Asteria Caberte on our TV show, Straight from the Sky, the other week when they dropped the charges for the stickers. But he did have a bad experience lining up all day just to have his helmet issued a sticker.

Honestly, I didn’t have the time to get stickers for my helmets, although they are in the DTI’s helmet list. So in a way, it is a very welcome move that the implementation has been postponed until December this year. I just hope that this postponement won’t be extended again… after all, next year we will be in the midst of the 2013 elections.

I’m sure that Cebu City Traffic Operations and Management (CITOM) is also elated by the DOTC decision to defer the implementation of the Helmet Law. At this point, I just hope that this deferment is only for securing a safety helmet. But today, what is woefully lacking is the enforcement of the Helmet Law… even if it is only a “unirola”. I still see a lot of motorcycle riders… mostly habal-habal drivers who blatantly defy the law and thumb their noses at our traffic enforcers. I know that CITOM enforcers know how to catch them… but then as I’ve always suspected, they don’t want to enforce the Helmet Law because it is an election year. Pray tell me that I’m wrong!

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