HELMET - Information drive

Help Encourage Lawful Motorcycling Environment Together..

Motor ko, Buhay ko..




This Feb 28, 2010, a group of voluntary riders will be having a discipline ride around metro manila to show others that not all motorcycle riders are moron's (as per Gwendolyn So said)

Sad but true that, Yes.. there's a lot of riders who doesn't know the right and proper way of riding, Road courtesy and "some" traffic rules.

This information drive will surely help those uneducated riders and hopefully they will be informed on what to do and what to wear.

This information drive is supported by Motorcyclephilippines.com forumers, MMDA motorcycling group and Petron.

More of these when you click this
Part 2 of Motor ko, Buhay ko (HELMET)

Vanity plates and the warlords within...

Passion For Reason
‘Vanity plates’ and the warlords within
By Raul Pangalangan
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 22:53:00 01/07/2010

Filed Under: Culture (general), Government, Maguindanao Massacre

WE SHOULDN’T externalize the problem of warlordism altogether, as if the shoguns emerged full-grown overnight and as if the brunt of the responsibility fell on government’s shoulders alone. The government certainly bears much of the blame, they who coddled, spoiled and pampered the local mafiosi, their capi and godfathers. But also we must recognize the many subtle ways in which many of us Filipinos in and out of government have taken part in nurturing a warlord culture.

The first way is the instinct of moral avoidance, though the most recent relevant example is quintessentially a governmental act. Following the Maguindanao massacre, President Macapagal-Arroyo created an independent commission to dismantle private armies within a four-month deadline. And what does the chief of the Philippine National Police do? Instantly he construes his marching orders as, in the words of the Inquirer on Jan. 5, that of a “study group,” no different from an academic seminar to look at warlordism as a social phenomenon. Ms Arroyo’s tokenism was bad enough, given that the Chief Executive took a constitutional oath to “execute [our] laws [and] do justice to every man” and actually has the power to confiscate the private armies’ firearms and raid their secret armories, disarm their personal bodyguards, and recall the government-issued security detail assigned to these hoodlums we call “Honorable.” But the evasive response of her chief executors is even more appalling. We already have the Quezon City judge who shirked his duty to judge the Maguindanao murders. Now we have a police chief who would rather play Oprah Winfrey and engage in a focus-group discussion on the killing fields of Ampatuan town.

How I would have wished instead that the Armed Forces and the Philippine National Police had asserted the professionalism of the officer corps and refused to lend its uniformed men to become mercenaries for local feudal lords. They should have asserted the state’s “monopoly on the legitimate use of force,” rather than deliver their high-powered weaponry to local hired goons and then kowtow before those goons. And beyond that, they should have earned our confidence that they are worthy to bear arms—arms and ammunition that we the citizens pay for—in our name. That means that they should hold themselves to the highest standards of discipline and claim no privileges by the very fact that they have guns. (I once encountered PNP officers who, in a traffic accident caused when one of their own went on counter-flow, tried to move the fallen motorbike to make it appear otherwise.)

For me, the struggle against warlordism will not be fought out there in Maguindanao alone. In many ways, the real test for the government’s political will to run after warlords is its readiness to take on the petty cases of warlordism by aspiring mafiosi on Manila’s roads. That is why vanity plates, or to be more precise, those so-called commemorative car plates identifying the car owner as a PNP officer or as a PMA alumnus or as “Lawyer,” really gets my goat.

Ladies and Gentlemen, don’t tell me those plates are meant truly to commemorate one anniversary or another. If they are, couldn’t you have found less grating mementos to hallow your ennobled tribe? Granting that they are bona fide commemorative, can you deny that these plates might have a chilling effect on low-level law enforcers who would rather look the other way than cross swords with potentially troublesome drivers? Otherwise why the unsubtle suggestion that the owner belongs to some privileged elite? Seriously, would you believe anyone who carries those car plates and then goes around announcing his fealty to the rule of law? The Integrated Bar of the Philippines, of which I am a member, does itself a disservice by tolerating this practice.

I am told that the Land Transportation Office allows only four kinds of plates: regular plates, low-numbered plates (e.g., 1 for the president, 8 for congressmen, etc.) special/vanity plates (e.g., BOND 007), commemorative (e.g., Manila 400). Therefore, plates with Mayor or Councilor, for instance, are not recognized by the LTO, and are technically not commemorative plates.

The LTO, to its credit, once had the chutzpah to propose that the low-numbered VIP plates be restricted since they were being abused by the congressmen. And lo and behold, the honorable members of Congress pounced upon the hapless LTO chief, conducted a hearing purportedly “in aid of legislation,” and made him promise to behave in the future. If the government cannot fight the symbols of abuse in the heartland of Manila, why should we believe that it can fight actual abuse in the hinterlands of Mindanao?

This campaign calls for support from the lowliest traffic policeman to the highest uniformed officials. The traffic constables would prefer to look the other way unless they are assured that their superiors will back them in case they tangle with the high and mighty. In turn, the career officers need to be assured that, when push comes to shove, they can bank on the political will of the political appointees to stand their ground. Eventually, they must be able to count on an indignant public opinion to express its outrage.

In that sense, warlordism must be nipped in the bud before it flourishes on an Ampatuan scale, and we the public must be alert to seemingly innocuous symbols of privilege that identify the warlords in the making. Indeed, when it comes to the abuse of power, there is no such thing as “innocuous.” They are, from the beginning, simply pernicious.

16th National Convention for Motorcycles - Bawal ang Underbones at scooter

Vmax owners group is hosting the 16th National Convention for Motorcycles this year at Cebu..

But underbone and scooter users aren't allowed to join..


Their Reason?

They didn't get to eat their dinner at the event, and they blame underbone and scooter users.

WTF?

why does they blame the underbone and scooter riders, they pay the same amount of fees just to attend the convention.

This is a discrimination among low displacement riders




My thoughts?

they shouldn't call it "motorcycle convention" if they wouldn't allow low dispalcements motorcycle to join. They should change it to "big bike convention" that would be much better and much more understandable.



We have a lot of motorcycle bodies in the MC Community.. But they doesn't do anything to resolve this issue, all they do is to pose..

MCP Thread Click here to view the Discussion