A couple of weeks ago, the Ford Everest I was driving was apparently the victim of a “riding-in-tandem carnap” try along Araneta Avenue in Quezon City.

The modus of the crime is quite simple. A rider of a motorcycle will throw a rock at your car hard enough to startle the driver and make him get out of the car to check leaving the car running and his door open. The passenger of the motorcycle will then get off and slip into your drivers seat and run away with the car.

I was lucky enough to not leave the driver side door long enough for them to slip into the car, and besides, fearing the worst, I alighted from the Everest armed. This probably spooked the suspects who ran to the waiting motorbike which in turn then sped away.

The car right behind me motioned to the motorbike speeding away and then shouted “I cannot see the plate boss.” I asked him what happened and, true to my suspicions, he said one of the persons on the bike alighted and threw a rock he was already holding at my car. The rock hit the rear glass of the Everest, shattering it to pieces.

He was not able to get the plate number of the bike because it was too small.

Now, driving with small and unreadable plate numbers on you motorcycle or scooter will be illegal if the house bill tackling the issue will be passed into law.

The House Joint Committee on Transportation and Public Order and Safety just approved a substitute bill last March 14, 2018, requiring changes in the plate numbers of motorcycle and scooters particularly its size and visibility.

The bill is in reaction to the spate of crimes that have been perpetuated by motorcycle riding suspects. Killings and robberies have been attributed to a huge number of incidents where persons riding on motorcycles are the perpetrators of the crime. My experience is just one of them.

Under the bill, motorcycle plates will have to be readable and big enough for everyone to see, just like ordinary car plates. Congressman Ruffy Biazon, head of the technical working group tackling the bill said “We used the term ‘bigger’ number plates as opposed to the term ‘readable’ because we felt as it is all number plates are readable. So a better description is the word ‘bigger.”

The bill also wants the plate numbers to be positioned both at front and back, just like four wheeled vehicles, so the identity and ownership can easily be established.

This proposal is not new and has been rejected by riders across the nation in the past. But because of the increase in motorcycle based crimes, congress seems bent on pursuing this into law.

Had the plate numbers been big enough to read, I am sure the PNP could find the culprits behind the incident involving the Everest I was driving. But because the motorbike could not be identified, the cops said my case is really hard to solve. Just like all other cases involving the same kind of modus.