THE Philippine National Police (PNP) in Negros Oriental has clarified that motorcycles registered under the agency’s Clean Rider program will still be subjected to checkpoint procedures and can be flagged down at any given time.
Even if a motorcycle owner/driver has a Clean Rider sticker on his unit, he can still be subjected to a checkpoint or flag down, said Senior Superintendent Raul Tacaca, acting provincial police director.
“Ah yun po ang misconception ng public na komo meron ka nang Clean Rider sticker ay di ka na ipa-flag down...kasama ka rin po kaya lang napapapabilis lang ang pag check kasi makikita dun ang mga information (That is a misconception by the public that since you have a Clean Rider sticker on your motorcycle that you won’t be flagged down. You’re still subject to it but checking for proper documents becomes faster because of the available information),” Tacaca said on August 22.
Under the Clean Rider campaign of the PNP, owners of motorcycles with complete papers are asked to register their units before they are given a Clean Rider sticker.
According to Tacaca, 1,394 Clean Rider stickers have so far been issued in Dumaguete City, although there are still more for distribution pending the evaluation of the papers submitted to the PNP by motorcycle owners and riders.
He admitted that the stickers on hand are not enough for the entire province, but added that if they do run out of stickers, they can always ask for more from the PNP national headquarters.
There are an estimated 20,000 motorcycle units in Negros Oriental, although the exact data is with either the Highway Patrol Group or the Land Transportation Office (LTO), said Tacaca.
Meanwhile, the PNP at the national level is set to launch Oplan Clean Rider in more areas after the first phase was successful, said Chief Superintendent Rey Lyndon Lawas, deputy director for operations of the PNP’s Directorate for Operations in Camp Crame.
Lawas, who hails from Dumaguete and was the guest lecturer on Tuesday, August 21, at the opening of the LTO Deputation Seminar and Traffic Investigation Training for policemen in Negros Oriental, said that initially, the PNP had printed out and distributed 50,000 Clean Rider stickers nationwide.
In the first phase, only seven areas had launched the campaign plan, but Lawas said that “on September 15, we will launch it again in other areas in the remaining regions.”
“It will be a nationwide campaign so we can come up with a possible solution to incidents involving motorcycle-riding suspects,” Lawas said.
“As can be seen, there are quite a number of incidents involving motorcycle-riding suspects and we would like to address this problem,” he added. (PNA)