SAFETY RULES: Children below 18 years old banned from riding motorcycles

LTO -- Starting May 19, children below 18 years old are no longer allowed to board motorcycles plying major public roads.

Effective this date, the Land Transportation Office (LTO) and other law enforcement agencies will apprehend motorcycle drivers with small children riders in accordance with Republic Act No. 10666, “Children’s Safety on Motorcycles Act of 2015.” It was signed into law by former President Benigno Aquino III on July 21, 2015.

Allowing children and minors below 18 years old onboard motorcycles will no longer be allowed today and Friday, respectively, as the Children’s Safety on Motorcycles Act take effect.

Under its implementing rules and regulations, motorcycle riders are not allowed to drive with small children on board, especially when traversing roads where there are heavy volumes of fast-moving vehicles, or where a speed limit of more than 60 kilometer-per-hour are imposed.

Only children who are able to reach the motorcycle’s foot peg and can embrace the waist of the driver will be allowed to ride a motorcycle. Child passengers must also wear the standard protective gear for riding motorcycles.

Children sitting in front of the motorcycle, or between riders, will also not be allowed. The only exception to these rules is when a child is being transported due to immediate medical attention.

Violators will be fined P3,000 on the first offense; P5,000 on the second offense; and P10,000 and a one-month suspension of the driver’s license on the third offense. The LTO will revoke the licenses of those who will be caught beyond third offense.

In case of accidents that results in injuries or death of the child passenger, motorcycle drivers will be imprisoned for one year in addition to the penalties provided for in the Revised Penal Code of the Philippines.

source: manila bulletin

BOHOL NEWS: ABU SAYYAF REMNANTS KILLED

BOHOL -- Two of the remaining Abu Sayyaf bandits who entered Bohol in April this year were killed in separate military and police operations in Pangangan Island, Calape, Bohol, on Monday, May 15. 

Abu Asis, the last Abu Sayyaf remnant, was killed around 5:30 p.m. Monday, May 15, a military source confirmed.

The first to fall at past noon Monday was Abu Ubayda. He was killed in Barangay Lawis, Pangangan Island, Calape. 

Asis was reportedly wounded in the upper right portion of his back and was armed with a caliber .45 pistol. 

The bandits held hostage an old man and his grandson who were gathering seashells in the shores of Barangay Kahayag, Pangangan Island.

Abu Ubayda was armed with an M16 rifle, while Asis had a caliber .45 pistol. 

The bandits managed to board a motorcycle along with the hostages. 

But Abu Ubayda was killed after he engaged in a brief chase with government troops in Barangay Lawis, said the local police.

The two Abu Sayyaf bandits were sighted in Pangangan Island on May 12, a month after they entered Inabanga, Bohol, and clashed with government troops in April.