EDITORIAL - The perfect getaway vehicle

By most indications, probers are still facing a blank wall on the strafing of the van of actress Kim Chiu last week. The actress was on her way to a television taping in the morning of March 4 when her van was fired upon by two men on a motorcycle at the corner of Katipunan Avenue and CP Garcia in Quezon City.

Fortunately and amazingly, Chiu and her driver as well as a personal assistant survived the hail of bullets unharmed. Police said the gunmen had tailed the van from the subdivision where Chiu lives, and it could have been a case of mistaken identity. Obviously, the only way to find out is to catch the gunmen.

With no possible motive, however, and with the gunmen wearing black helmets that concealed their identities even from surveillance cameras, this looks like another case that would be added to an ever growing list of unsolved attacks perpetrated by men riding on motorcycles.

Whether in the traffic-choked streets of Metro Manila or in the open highways, the motorcycle has become the ideal getaway vehicle for all types of criminals in this country. Last Sunday in Sampaloc, Manila, a 25-year-old business process outsourcing employee driving a motorcycle was shot dead by two men on another motorbike. Police said the victim had resisted the gunmen’s attempt to take his motorcycle. The killers fled without taking the motorbike.

As in the ambush on Kim Chiu, even if there is surveillance footage, the gunmen’s identities would likely be concealed by helmets and jackets. Motorcycle license plates can easily be smeared with mud to make it impossible to trace them. Thousands of killings linked to drug deals have been attributed by the police to civilians on motorcycles. Most of the killings are unsolved. Bags and mobile phones are snatched by men on motorcycles.

With hardly anyone being caught, these attacks are guaranteed to continue. The so-called riding-in-tandem criminals can get away with practically everything. This administration is supposed to give priority to the drive against criminality. Tightening the regulation of motorcycle use is an intrinsic element in the success of the campaign.