EDITORIAL — Circumventing the rules

On March 25 this year, President Marcos issued Administrative Order No. 18, banning government officials and personnel from using sirens, blinkers, dome lights and similar devices. Exempted from the wang-wang ban are official vehicles of the military, police and National Bureau of Investigation as well as ambulances, fire trucks and other emergency vehicles.

So what do public officials and other VIPs do with the loss of this entitlement? They get security escorts who use official police vehicles. Or else they get escorts posing as police. Two traffic enforcers of the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority are now facing a criminal complaint for usurpation of authority for putting Philippine National Police stickers on their motorcycles.

The MMDA is not among the agencies exempted from the ban on sirens and blinkers under AO No. 18. The two MMDA enforcers were pulled over on Wednesday night last week at the corner of Aseana Avenue and JW Diokno Boulevard in Parañaque by members of the police Highway Patrol Group who spotted the PNP stickers on the motorcycles.

The two enforcers were escorting Sen. Francis Tolentino, the new Senate majority leader and former MMDA chief. Are MMDA traffic personnel being paid by taxpayers to provide security escort services? And how many public officials are entitled to motorcycle escorts? Shouldn’t the number be strictly limited, considering the insufficiency of patrol vehicles?

Former Ilocos Sur governor Luis Singson, when his convoy was pulled over by MMDA traffic enforcers for using the EDSA Busway last April, issued a public apology, commended the enforcers and gave P100,000 to the MMDA as a reward.

Tolentino, after his MMDA escorts were pulled over for posing as motorcycle cops, invited PNP spokesperson Col. Jean Fajardo as a guest in his radio program on Friday and then admonished her for supposedly announcing the apprehension of his escorts. Fajardo in fact had simply updated the media on another case, about an HPG member and an ex-Army soldier who were arrested for serving as motorcycle escorts of a Toyota Alphard van in Parañaque.

Shortly after AO No. 18 was released, then Senate majority leader Joel Villanueva filed a bill in April, which would effectively turn the AO into law. The proposed Anti-Wang Wang Act exempts only law enforcement, military and emergency vehicles from the ban. The bill proposes penalties not only for the unauthorized use of sirens, blinkers and similar devices, but also their unauthorized sale.

The PNP merits commendation and full public support for doing its job. Villanueva’s bill also deserves support. If enacted into law, the public should hope government officials will not set the example in circumventing its provisions.