A House leader on Saturday warmed concerned government agencies against issuing “half-baked” Implementing Rules and Regulations of new laws to avoid confusion once the new laws get implemented.
Camarines Sur Rep. LRay Villafuerte made the statement as he welcomed reports by the Land Transportation Office that the revisions to the IRR of the anti-distracted driving law to ensure that clear rules are now being implemented has led to better and smoother enforcement.
“The confusion that characterized the initial implementation of the ADDA should be a lesson to all government agencies to refrain from enforcing new laws with half-baked IRRs,” Villafuerte, vice chairman of the House of Representatives’ committee on local government, said.
Villafuerte was among the legislators who took the task of reviewing the IRR of the ADDA law a few months ago following the controversies and criticisms on the initial implementation of the new law last May.
Several senators have also called for a suspension of the law’s implementation after the public complained about the confusion in the rules set by the LTO to enforce the ADDA.
The amended IRR of the ADDA, which took effect last July 6, prohibits the use of any mobile communication devices and electronic entertainment gadgets to write, send or read a text, make or receive calls, play games, watch movies, and surf the Internet while the vehicle is in motion or stopping at a red light or intersection.
The IRR also provides that drivers must stop and pull over before operating navigational aids, such as Waze, on their mobile phones or other GPS devices.
It states a four-inch “safe zone” has also been prescribed by the Department of Transportation for the placement of devices to be used for navigational aids.
Last May, when the ADDA was first enforced, Villafuerte took the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board to task for “going overboard” in simultaneously banning the placing of what an LTFRB official has called as “defective, improper and unauthorized” accessories such as rosaries and other religious items on rearview mirrors and dashboards of vehicles, supposedly for violating the three-year-old Joint Administrative Order No. 2014-01 issued by the LTFRB and LTO.
Villafuerte said texting while driving should certainly be banned under the ADDA, but penalizing the act of merely glancing at one’s phone to check Waze or any other navigational app was an “overreach.”