A couple of days ago, a friend of mine lost some of his belongings to a menace that we are all too familiar with: cowardly thieves riding in tandem. These lowlifes who take advantage of the agility and mobility of mopeds to commit crimes have plagued every single town, city and province in the country.
Our government have tried in vain to draw up bills or ordinances to stop this ever growing menace. From the filing of House Bill 5720 ("Riding in Tandem Interdiction Act of 2012â€) to city councilors drawing up ordinances seeking the prohibition of so-called riding-in-tandem on motorcycles, every possible solution is being drawn up to eradicate this menace.
Even our police force has been tasked to come up with ways to solve this threat. They have come up with the "Motorized Anti-Street Crime Operatives" (MASCO) program. This program, which allegedly has a one million peso budget, will involve the training of a group of law enforcers to be specially adept at driving motorcycles at high speed in order to chase down these perpetrators. I wonder why they need such program when lots of law enforcers already drive motorcycles at high speeds, against the flow of traffic, without helmets to boot! And they ride in tandem sometimes too!
Another program, whose budget I am not privy to yet, is called the Verification of Identity and Stickers Authenticity or VISA. The ordinance supports the “No ID No Travel Policy†of the PNP. This is to prevent the use of illegal and colorum mopeds by encouraging owners of motorcycles to register their scooters at their respective municipal police stations wherein they will be issued a sticker. Question one, how big and how visible would that sticker be for law enforcers to be able to identify who owns which bike? Question two, how effective would a city ordinance be if the moped is owned by a person who lives in the next city? Would they flag the person down for not having their city sticker? Now, imagine how many stickers a motorized messenger would need if every city, town and municipality required you to register with them, else you’d be tagged for driving a colorum moped.
All this, although good, is an exercise in futility. For one thing, it is street legal to drive a scooter with one passenger provided that a proper seat and foot rest is provided for the passenger. Heck, the traffic enforcers don’t even reprimand the Flying Graysons for driving a scooter with dad, mom, harry, dick and baby jane, all on the same scooter. And without helmets to boot!
Another is the fact that everyone else seems to be selling a scooter to every ineligible scoundrel just to make a quick buck. Nevermind that they do a very faulty background check on the prospect buyer, they don’t even really care to have the person fill up the necessary forms completely. Oh, and buying an extra helmet for their partner in crime would be a welcome bonus for the salesperson.
And the most probable reason why crimes committed by persons riding in tandem will never be eradicated is the total ineptitude of the police force to actually strike fear into the hearts of these criminals. If they are stupid enough to let notorious criminals out of their cells to “kiss and hug their childrenâ€, then every single moped driver with criminal intent would not hesitate to commit a riding-in-tandem crime since they’ll be free to walk out of a prison cell anytime.
Besides, most law enforcers are probably busy playing lackey and devote a squad car and two escorts to every single insecure businessman who wants to show off their non-existent power and influence every time he goes on a vacation.
Oh by the way, there was one such businessman within the area where my friend was victimized. So, regarding reason number three, I rest my case.