Indonesia cracks down on motorcycle plate manipulation
The Land Transportation Office (LTO) has been cracking down on fake and unauthorized license plates, which the agency says can be used to evade the No-Contact Apprehension Policy (NCAP) or conceal a vehicle’s identity in criminal activities.
Under Republic Act No. 11235, or the Motorcycle Crime Prevention Act, those who use, sell, buy, forge, alter, or imitate motorcycle plates can face up to two years in prison, a fine of up to PHP 10,000, or both. The LTO has also been going after online sellers producing plates that mimic official LTO-issued plates.
The problem is not unique to the Philippines as it seems. Authorities in Indonesia are also dealing with motorcycle riders who alter, cover, or remove their plates to make them harder for traffic cameras to read.
Transport observer and Advisory Board Member of the Indonesian Transportation Society (MTI), Djoko Setijowarno, in a recent interview, said some riders change one or two numbers or letters on their plates, remove the rear plate, or use dark acrylic covers that make the characters difficult for Electronic Traffic Law Enforcement (ETLE) cameras to read.
ETLE uses cameras to detect traffic violations and identify vehicles through their license plates, making it broadly similar to our very own NCAP.
Djoko said the practice is not limited to riders trying to avoid traffic tickets. Some motorists with overdue vehicle payments reportedly use fake or concealed plates to make their motorcycles harder for debt collectors to identify.
Furthermore, those who have problems with their motor vehicle installment arrears use fake license plates or cover up the TNKB to deceive debt collectors so that the vehicles will not be repossessed.
He added that fake or obscured plates can also be used to conceal a vehicle’s identity before other crimes, including motorcycle theft, fraud, hit-and-run incidents, and robberies.
Indonesia requires motorcycles to display the prescribed registration plate. Under Article 280 of Law No. 22 of 2009, operating a vehicle without the required plate can result in up to two months' imprisonment or a fine of up to IDR 500,000, equivalent to around PHP 1,700.
With plate manipulation making electronic enforcement more difficult, Djoko is calling for a combination of electronic and manual enforcement. He suggested selective manual ticketing for clearly visible violations, including motorcycles with missing or non-standard plates, alongside mobile ETLE.
Djoko also proposed using technologies such as Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) linked to vehicle registration data. This would give authorities another way to identify motorcycles when their license plates cannot be properly captured by traffic cameras.
