National Helmet Law passed, 10 year olds banned on motorcycles.

MAASIN CITY – A national law requiring all motorcyclists to wear crash helmets is now in effect.

The law which is called the National Helmet Act or RA 10054 which was signed into law by former President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo last April requires all motorcycle drivers and riders to wear crash helmets and forbids children 10 years or younger to ride on motorcycles.

Local government experts of the University of the Philippines Graduate School of Local Governance believe the new law whose violators will face fines of P1,500 to 10,000 pesos will be another test case on the political will of local chief executives who are required to implement the new law.
Whether they will do it is another matter. For in Maasin City initial indicators are not encouraging because according to the City’s Chief Traffic Enforcer Leonilo Egido wearing crash helmets in the city would still be optional.

While City Councilor Alejandro Rojas, the chairman of the Committee on Public Safety and Peace and Order advised SLT correspondent Angelyn Book to discuss the matter with Mayor Maloney Samaco who (he said) knew more about the issue.

However since we received no feedback from Mayor Samaco we asked Sogod Mayor Sheffered Tan for his views on the matter and he said they have been imposing their own helmet ordinance for the past 2 years.To further complicate the crash helmet controversy Egido told the Southern Leyte Times that the new law would only affect national roads like R. Kangleon and Tomas Oppus and not the city and barangay roadways.

“Okay, but where does one draw the line, since city and provincial roads eventually traverse national highways?” asks environmentalist Art Siga of Sitio Tuburan, Tunga-Tunga Maasin City which bisects the R. Kangleon national road.

One question that was not raised but was in every concerned Maasinhon’s mind is which has precedence; a Republic Act, or a city ordinance? For if it’s the former (as it should be) then the latter must toe the line. Otherwise we would have what we have today, and that is – a state of anarchy. (By ANTHONY KINGS)

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