THE COURT of Appeals has declared as unconstitutional Mandaluyong City’s ordinances banning male back-riders on motorcycles.
Local authorities are prevented from enforcing and implementing Mandaluyong City’s riding-in-tandem ordinances, the appellate court’s fifth division said in a decision penned by Associate Justice Raymond Reynold Lauigan.
The constitutionality of the three ordinances were challenged by lawyer Dino De Leon before a Mandaluyong regional trial court after he was sued for violating the rules in March 2019.
The regional court dismissed the petition in July last year, citing lack of merit.
Mr. De Leon brought the case before the Court of Appeals, which ruled that the ordinances were discriminatory and oppressive.
Mr. De Leon, who was riding on the back of a motorcycle taxi when he was apprehended, told the appellate court that the Mandaluyong City government abused its police power with the issuance of the ordinances.
Under the said ordinances, male back riders who are not relatives of the driver are prohibited. The local laws, however, allowed motorcycle riding-in-tandem where the back rider is a female, a spouse or a relative, or a child between 7-10 years old.
Members of the Philippine National Police Tactical and Mobile Unit assigned in Mandaluyong were also exempted from the local laws. — Kyle Aristophere T. Atienza