RDC stands pat vs. carnap clearance

CEBU, Philippines - The Regional Development Council in Central Visayas wants an answer soon on their pending request to Malacañang not to revive the Anti-Carnapping Clearance.

The RDC-7, headed by its chairman Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama, stands by its position that ANCAR must not be revived because it will disrupt the free flow of people, goods and services inter-island.

The request remains a pending unresolved issue of the RDC since the matter was brought to their attention last March.

RDC was asked for its position on the matter during a meeting with Deputy Executive Director Secretary Teofilo Pilando Jr.

Pilando met with different RDCs, the Philippine National Police and Land Transportation Offices for a consultation on the request of the PNP to revive the ANCAR to curb the problem on rampant carnapping.

PNP requested the revival of the ANCAR after several carnapping incidents in early 2011. Most of stolen vehicles, according to the PNP, are brought directly to the port and shipped to the buyers in the Visayas and Mindanao.

The PNP believes the ANCAR will prevent carnapped vehicles from being shipped to another province making it difficult for the police to trace the stolen vehicles.

The ANCAR will allow the police to check the engine and chassis number of the vehicles and match it with those listed as stolen vehicles before the vehicles can be shipped. 

The PNP Highway Patrol Group used to issue ANCAR clearance before it was abolished in 2001.

But the RDC in the region said that even with the ANCAR implemented since the Martial Law period until 2001, it failed to deter carnapping.

RDC insists that the ANCAR clearance will cause the decline of the socio-economic gains and momentum attained by provinces from inter-island traffic.

“The ANCAR clearance requirement violates the legal presumption of innocence as it creates the presumption that all motor vehicles to be transshipped are stolen unless cleared by the PNP Highway patrol Group,” Rama said in his report last week of the accomplishments of RDC-7.

But while the ANCAR issue remains unresolved, Rama reported the accomplishments of RDC-7 in bringing to national attention the need to establish regional offices for the National Water Resources Management Council and in solving the problems of local producers of bio-ethanol through the Department of Energy Circular mandating oil companies to exhaust first locally-produced bio-ethanol before importing.

RDC-7 was also able to prioritize, through the Department of Public Works and Highways, road construction amounting to P838 million in areas in Siquijor that are conflicted and with high incidence of poverty.  (FREEMAN)