Message of the Chairman, Committee on Transportation

Re: Bills on Road Safety (06 December 2017)

Magandang umaga po sa ating lahat. I want to thank everyone, especially my

colleagues, for taking time to participate in this last Committee hearing for the year.
While the resumption of Session next year shall be on January 15, 2018, tuluy-tuloy
pa rin ang ating trabaho dito sa Kumite.

For today, we will be tackling bills on promoting the culture of road safety in
the Philippines. It goes without saying that the Committee on Transportation aims to
ensure that vehicles are roadworthy, and to ensure that the drivers of such
vehicles have the sufficient knowledge and training to operate such.

Before anything else, we shall go through the LTO bills which were not
discussed in the Committee hearing held last November 22. I would like to
remind our friends from the LTO that the creation or conversion of these offices is
not merely to offer licensing and registration services, but also to guarantee the
safety of the riding public by making certain that licenses are offered only to qualified
private and public utility drivers and that registration is limited only to roadworthy
private and public utility vehicles.

Notably, we will also take up House Bill Number 6455 introduced by Speaker
Pantaleon Alvarez and by yours truly, which provides for the speedy processing of
registration of imported vehicles. Approval of this Bill will simplify the procedures
and shortening the tedious process in government transactions every time a dealer,
importer or private individual needs to obtain a copy of certain documents or records.

This Bill is relevant and timely because we are losing revenue as a result of
corruption. Andaming reklamo ngayon ukol sa smuggling and technical smuggling,
kasama na rito ang pagkahuli sa undervaluation ng 18 na luxury cars sa Manila port
noong Oktubre. Pakay ng batas na ito na pigilan ang pagkabawas ng pera sa kaban
ng bayan upang madagdag ang pondo para sa mga prayoridad na proyekto ng
gobyerno.

As to the bills on road safety, first is House Bill Number 5107, providing for
required driver’s education for all professional truck drivers introduced by Rep.
Linabelle Ruth Villarica. This will ensure road safety for motorists and the commuting
public.

Also included in our agenda on road safety is House Bill 3477 authored by
Rep. Evelina Escudero. This lowers the permissible truck loadings in the country
provided under Section 6 of Republic Act 8794, from an axle load of 13,500
kilograms to 12,000 kilograms.

Ninanais natin na palakasin ang mga sistema at mekanismo tungo sa

pagpapaunlad ng kaledad ng pagmamaneho ng mga tsuper ng trak. Sisiguruhin
natin na hindi na mauulit ang mga nakaraang road crash na nadawit ang cement
mixer at steel cargo truck na naging dahilan ng pagkitil ng buhay ng inosenteng
nating mga mamamayan.

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 We will also take up House Bills 757 and 1497 introduced by Reps. Emmeline
Aglipay-Villar and Harlin Neil Abayon III, respectively. These Bills seek to prescribe
regulations to mitigate the effects of vehicular accidents by prescribing safety
standards for school buses. It is the objective to prescribe minimum design
standards of school buses for the safety of the student passengers.

Also in the agenda is House Bill 1577 of Rep. Alfred Vargas establishing
tricycle driver training and motorist awareness programs in the country. With
this piece of legislation, we will be able to protect properties and lives of tricycle
drivers, passengers and pedestrians.

Coupled with this measure on tricycle driver training is House Bill 2799 which
provides for a Magna Carta of Tricycle Drivers and Operators, introduced by Rep.
Ria Vergara. It will ensure the safety and protection of the tricycle drivers and
operators sector from abusive local and national authorities as well as continued
growth of this cultural icon that serves as the livelihood of a large number of Filipino
families.

We shall cap off our session by underscoring our utmost support to road
crash survivors and families of victims. We shall be listening to our distinguished
guests representing them. Last November 19, the nation joined the global
community in observance of the World Day of Remembrance for Road Crash
Victims. On the part of the Department of Transportation, they committed to
implement measures that will set and enforce lower speed limits in concurrence with
the Philippine Road Safety Action Plan 2017-2022, which aims to reduce road
fatalities by 20% in 2022. For its part, the Transportation Committee is pledging to
pass a bill that will designate the 3rd Sunday of November annually as the Philippine
Day of Remembrance for Road Crash Victims, Survivors and Families.

We will also emphasize our support by taking up today the establishment of

an important component of road safety, which is the Motor Vehicle Inspection
System, or MVIS. While as of today, the MVIS is not operating at all, the General
Appropriations Act of 2018 provides for P2.1 billion under the budgetary item on
Motor Vehicle Registration and Driver’s License Regulatory Services. There is also a
fund that could be sourced out from the Road Board.

Ako po ay magbabalik-tanaw sa aking paglakbay kasama ang ibang mga

miyembro ng Kumite sa Singapore noong Oktubre. Learning from the Singapore
experience, I realized that there is a need for an immediate response when it
comes to road safety mechanisms. Singapore has the capability to do so because
of their Intelligent Transport System, which provides for CCTV cameras all over
the city, empowering them to deploy their personnel and respond to emergencies
swiftly. They also have to make sure that each crash is investigated speedily.

This Christmas season, let us wish for safer roads in our country. Let us
aspire to come up with more solutions that would address the road safety problem
together this 2018 and in the coming years ahead.

Maraming salamat po, at Maligayang Pasko sa inyong lahat!

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