No exemption in road violations, HPG-7 says

CEBU, Philippines — The Highway Patrol Group-7 has clarified that they do not impose exemptions on highway violators despite the Valentine’s Day and the observance of Ash Wednesday today.

This was made clear by the regional chief of the HPG-7, Police Lieutenant Wilbert Parilla, in a media forum yesterday.

“Traffic violations will not be given [chance]. If you have traffic violations, especially blatant kaayo nga violations nga wa ka gasul-ob og helmet, that would still be a violation. Appropriate tickets, or violation tickets, will be issued,” Parilla said.

Parilla also explained that the high crime rate involving motorcycles being used was the reason why they often conduct checkpoints on motorcycles and not often on cars.

“Most of the crime happens with the use of motorcycles. We don’t have, even the records, nga almost wala gyu’y insidente sa crime, like, for example, a specific violation sa snatching, robbery. Wala may nagamit og Mercedez Benz, wa ma’y nagamit og Montero, wa ma’y nagamit og SUV. Mostly ang gigamit is motorcycle,” Parilla explained.

He also clarified that this does not mean that the motorcycle riders are criminals, rather the authorities are only doing this as precautionary measures and not as discrimination against motorcycle users.

He also added that he instructed the Provincial Highway Patrol Team (PHPT) to conduct daily information dissemination with the public to avoid falling victim to carnappers.

Further, Parilla said that they are monitoring three modes of carnapping which include stolen while parked unattended (SWPU), rent-tangay, and forcibly taken.

He mentioned that the most common mode recorded in their office was SWPU, while they also received some reports on rent-tangay incidents wherein the motorcycle or vehicle was rented or borrowed but was not returned to the owner of the renting firm.

Additionally, there were rare reports of forcibly taken vehicles, according to Parilla.

He advised the people to double-lock their motorcycles so as not to be victimized by the carnappers. — (FREEMAN)