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Dumaguete City ?If the Land Transportation Office makes good its intention to require motorcyclists to wear helmets, we may be seeing helmet-wearing parishioners lining up to take Holy Communion, an official of the Dumaguete Diocese said yesterday.
Fr. Gamaliel Tulabing, judicial vicar of the Diocese of Dumaguete, yesterday joined the growing number of people who have voiced their objection to the LTO?s move to require Dumaguete motorists to wear helmets.
?It?s funny when you think of it--the sight of people lining up for communion wearing safety helmets because they are tired of carrying them,? Tulabing said.
Another downside to the helmet requirement, he said, is that the seating capacity of the pews would decrease because the motorists would place their helmets beside them.
?This law,? Tulabing said, ?is clearly not acceptable. In order for the law to be effective, it has first to be acceptable by the people.?
Dumaguete is considered the motorcycle capital of the Philippines because nearly one out of five residents here own one, based on figures from the Land Transportation Office (LTO).
Motorcycle ownership in Dumaguete is representative of the cross section of the community, reaching all economic levels, age, sex and family size.
LTO data in 2005 showed that of the 60,000 motorcycles registered in Negros Oriental, 23,000 are in Dumaguete City, almost all of which are driven by motorists without helmets.
The LTO tried to implement the controversial administrative order AHS-2008-015 imposing higher fines for the non-use of helmets among motorists and other violations not found in Republic Act 4136, or the Traffic Code of the Philippines, but suspended it after meeting resistance from the Dumaguete City Council, which passed a resolution calling on the LTO to exempt Dumaguete City motorists from complying with the helmet requirement, and other sectors.
R.A. 4136 provides a penalty of P150 for the non-wearing of helmets but Dumaguete motorcyclists were incensed upon learning that the administrative order increased the fine to P1,500.
Regional Trial Court Branch 34 Judge Rosendo Bandal, Jr. even branded the LTO administrative order as illegal. ?The administrative order cannot override or supersede the explicit provision of the Traffic Code,? Bandal said.
Bandal said the LTO has to first have R.A. 4136 amended to include the other lofty provisions of the administrative order before they may enforce it. ALEX PAL
