In the heels of the confusion surrounding the helmet law which a city councilor wants to modify in its implementation, the Bohol Police Provincial Office (BPPO) has suggested that the use of helmet is better regulated through an ordinance requiring motorists to register their helmets, so as to make their identities recorded with local authorities. The suggestion came after city councilor Jerry Pabe pushed for an ordinance banning motorists from totally concealing their faces while driving their motorbikes. In several occasions here and elsewhere in the country, criminals, dubbed as “riding-in-tandem,” have successfully taken advantage of the use of helmets in perpetrating crimes. Police authorities have found it almost impossible, even with the use of CCTV cameras, to unmask the identity of criminals if their faces are fully covered with helmets.

The dilemma has forced other local government units to ban altogether the use of helmets in downtown areas, but not in city outskirts and in rural areas. BPPO in a statement said that since there is a national law requiring the use of helmet for motorcycle drivers and local authorities are precluded from disregarding a national law, one way to improve its implementation, police have suggested, is by properly identifying the owner of each helmet through registration. In this way, no driver can use just any helmet but the one which is being registered to his name. For instance, a helmet bearing 818 is on government record registered to so and so. It would be illegal to use a helmet registered in another's name. Police officials said that while they are aware of the importance of using helmets for personal safety, they have also been disturbed by crime incidents in which criminals have used helmets in concealing their identities during the commission of a crime. “If we cannot prohibit drivers from using helmets,” BPPO said, “we can however regulate how they use their helmets.” Nevertheless, police have admitted that any modification in the use of helmets, including the one they have suggested, needs further study and consultation so that “crime prevention and solution would not be sacrificed in the guise of convenience.”

According to Republic Act 10054, otherwise known as “An Act Mandating All Motorcycle Riders to Wear Standard Protective Motorcycle Helmets While Driving and Providing Penalties Therefor,” it provides that “any person caught not wearing the standard protective motorcycle helmet in violation of this Act shall be punished with a fine of One thousand five hundred pesos (Php1,500.00) for the first offense; Three thousand pesos (Php3,000.00) for the second offense; Five thousand pesos (Php5,000.00) for the third offense; and Ten thousand pesos (Php10,000.00) plus confiscation of the driver's license for the fourth and succeeding offenses.” RA 10054 also provides that “All laws, decrees, orders, rules and regulations or parts thereof inconsistent with this Act are hereby repealed or modified accordingly.”