I hope that Transportation and Communciations Secretary Mar Roxas, the Land TransportationOfffice, and other stakeholders will take into full consideration the three-point proposal made by the National Police to prevent crimes being perpetrated by motorcycle–riding men in Metro Manila and other parts of the country.

The letter-proposal signed by Gen. Nick Bartolome,  PNP chief, recommends that motorcycle plates in the country be made bigger, with the front and rear license plate readable from a distance for easy identification. It will surely make it much easier for the public to recognize and jot down the license plates of a motorcycle used in a criminal activity.

Another recommendation is to prescribe the markings or inscriptions of the same plate numbers to the riders’ helmets, including the use of helmets that would not fully cover the face of the motorcycle riders and passengers.

I was with Chief Supt. Dindo Espina, PNP-Highway Patrol Group director, when he hand-carried General Bartolome’s proposal to LTO chief  Virginia Torres Friday morning.           

Espina expressed optimism that if approved, those proposals would be a major help in curbing armed robbery and killings involving motorcycle-riding criminals.

Espina cited the Taiwan and Macau models wherein motorcycles have two uniform and bigger plates for motorcycles -- one in front and the other at the rear.  He added that in Taiwan, the tires of the motorcycles are much smaller that those of the Philippines and thus, could not run that fast unlike in the country where motorcycle-riding criminals ride fast bikes and are able to conceal their identities since they are wearing full-face helmets each time they attack a target as soon as he or she leaves a bank even in broad daylight.

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As a student who used to join anti-government protests in the 80s, I can’t help but understand the plight of today’s students, particularly those in government-run schools and universities which obviously lack budgets needed to provide quality education.

However, I still wonder why more than 20 years after leaving college, I still see and hear the same kind of students and their leaders shouting the same kind of sentiments from the days of Presidents Ferdinand Marcos, Cory Aquino, Fidel Ramos, Joseph Estrada, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, and now Benigno Aquino III.

Do these students really go to school? Or if they do, do they know that they are literally violating the law in the guise of exercising their freedom of speech and assembly?

I’m referring to the militant groups who tried to occupy the Chino Roces (formerly Mendiola) Bridge in Manila last Wednesday afternoon attacking anti-riot troops and damaging police and fire vehicles.

Television footages won’t lie. They showed the protesters inspired by the Occupy Wall Street Movement in the United States, assaulting Manila police anti-riot troops with the use of wooden poles with streamers, injuring several policemen in the process. Worst, footages also showed a police car sprayed with anti-government graffiti by unidentified demonstrators, forcing the MPD to have the prowl vehicle repainted

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I won’t say that the anti-riot troops were fully right. In fact, some of them were also shown hitting the demonstrators with their batons and shields, but it’s clear that at that time, the uniformed officers were merely doing their job -- maintain peace and order.

Five policemen and scores of the protesters were injured in the clash, said National Capital Region Police Office chief  Alan Purisima, who commended his men for enforcing maximum tolerance despite attacks from the protesters, many of whom now facing charges for violation of Article 139 of the Revised Penal Code (Sedition); Article 151 (Resistance and Disobedience to a Person in Authority or the Agents of Such Person); Article 153 (Tumults and other Disturbances of Public Order); BP 880 (Public Assembly Act of 1985); Malicious Mischief and Physical Injury.

Purisima said that during the dispersal operation, a rock thrown by one of the members of the  group hit the windshield of a 6x6 truck owned by the PNP. 

He said a member of the League of Filipino Students  also hit the left side mirror of a fire truck whose crew augmented the anti-riot troops. The back signal light of the ehicle was broken, and its water pump was damaged as a result of the incident.

These acts have triggered so many questions in my mind: Do protest leaders really allow their members to destroy government properties, even paint police vehicles with anti-government slogans? Will they allow anybody to do the same thing to their personal vehicles?  What could have happened if TV cameramen and photographers were not around to cover that protest?