Acknowledging the importance of child restraints to ensure the protection of children while travelling aboard vehicles, Senator Richard Gordon on Tuesday said it might not be timely to push through with the implementation of the Child Safety in Motor Vehicles Act, which was supposed to take effect on Feb. 2.
He said people were hard-up because of the pandemic. He said the average cost of a Car Restraint Seat was P5,000 or more
Gordon, a co-author of the law, also says there is no need for it at this time since children aged 15 years and below are not allowed to go out anyway due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Senator Christopher Go echoed Gordon's sentiments, saying the noble purpose behind RA 11229 must take a back seat because of the hardships imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
"We should refrain from imposing additional economic burden on the ordinary Filipino families—not at this time when their utmost priority is to make ends meet," Go said.
He said it was only proper to defer the implementation of RA 11229 until the Filipinos had weathered the pandemic.
He said the DOTR, PIA, DepEd and the DOH had yet to conduct the mandated Information, Education and Communication Campaign, which was untimely shelved because of the pandemic.
"Ordinary Filipino families deserve to be properly educated and informed before we can impose an added burden on them. I believe this is part and parcel of due process," he said
"Our countrymen deserve to make the necessary preparations and to understand the technicalities of the law. It will be ironic to force the implementation of the law even (if) there is a lot of confusion on how it is to be applied."
Go, however, emphasized that the safety of the Filipinos and their children had always been a priority of President Rodrigo Duterte.
Under the omnibus guidelines issued by the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases on the implementation of community quarantine in the Philippines, any person below fifteen years old, along with others enumerated, will be required to remain in their residences at all times, except when obtaining essential goods and services or for work in industries and offices or such other permitted activities.
Republic Act 11229, or the Child Safety in Motor Vehicles Act, mandates the use of child restraint systems for children who are 12 years old and below with a height of 4’11” and below. The CRS used must be appropriate to a child’s age, height and weight, and must be mounted in the rear seat of the vehicle.
The CRS must also comply with standards set by the Department of Trade and Industry as specified in the DTI’s Administrative Order 20-03 and other international standards including those under the United Nations Regulations 44 and 149.
Anyone who uses expired or non-compliant child car seats will face a fine of P1,000 for the first offense, P3,000 for the second offense and P5,000 for the third offense.