Philippine National Police (PNP) Director General Oscar Albayalde on Monday said requiring bigger license plates on the front and back of motorcycles will not discriminate riders.

This, after thousands of riders gathered last Sunday in the People Power Monument to protest the Motorcycle Crime Prevention Act that aims to prevent crimes by making plate numbers more readable from a distance and will be color-coded based on their regions.

“First, I don't think that is discrimination. This is part of security. This is for the security of the whole country not only to anybody,” said Albayalde in a press conference.

He said it will be helpful in preventing riding-in-tandem incidents which happens in the entire country.

“It’s for everyone that the government saw that we can prevent incidents especially riding-in-tandem. Remember riding-in-tandems are perpetrated by suspects riding in motorcycles and it’s hard to see the plate on these motorcycles because it’s so little,” said Albayalde.

The chief PNP said the country still does not have the technology to see small plate numbers through CCTV and to find where is the motorcycle registered.

“This is not discriminatory. This is all part of improvement in the peace and security of the whole nation. Even cars, they change their plate numbers,” he said.

Albayalde said the “clean rider” campaign continues. In this campaign, PNP will issued stickers to riders with no criminal record.

He said these stickers were useful especially during checkpoints.

Albayalde urged the public to check if double plate numbers will be a hassle for them.

“Let’s see first. I think we are not going to do something that will make our vehicles unpleasant. And as I said, it’s for the safety of everyone,” he said.

Based on police records, these incidents in Metro Manila dropped by 53 percent from 853 in 2017 to 400 in 2018.

Motorcycle-related murder cases had the highest decline of 85.21 percent from 338 in 2017 to only 50 in 2018 while robbery incidents decreased from 224 to 186 and physical injuries from 128 to 75. Ella Dionisio/DMS