“The final push to amend the burdensome and discriminatory provisions of the ‘Doble Plaka’ Law is underway.”

Thus assured Senate Majority Leader Francis ‘Tol’ Tolentino, as he and 1-Rider Party-List Representative Bonifacio Bosita agreed to work together to ease the burden for millions of motorcycle riders in the country in the remaining sessions of the 19th Congress.

On the radio program, Usapang Tol, Bosita thanked Tolentino for shepherding the passage of Senate Bill No. (SBN) 2555, which will amend Republic Act (RA) 11235, or the Doble Plaka Law.

The Senate unanimously approved the measure which was sponsored by Tolentino on third and final reading last July 29.

“We thank you for spearheading the passage of the amendments to the Doble Plaka Law. Because when you read it, the law seems to assume that motorcycle riders are up to no good, which is not true,” Bosita told the senator.

In response, Tolentino thanked Bosita and gave the latter his commitment to advance their common objective to remove unjust and discriminatory policies against millions of motorcycle riders.

For his part, Bosita shared with the senator that the House counterpart of SBN 2555 has already hurdled the committee level, and will be calendared in plenary soon.

“We will await its passage so that we can reconcile it with the Senate version at the bicameral level and be able to help our riders,” Tolentino remarked.

Earlier this week, the senator called out the Region 7 office of the Land Transportation Office (LTO) over its plan to apprehend motorcycles using improvised license plates beginning September 1. The senator commented that he could not comprehend the logic of the directive, when the agency itself had yet to resolve its backlogs in the issuance of millions of license plates.