Child safety seats are now mandatory in the Philippines under the Motor Vehicle and Child Protection Act, which went into effect on February 2.
There is actually a transition period of three to six months, after which there will be a penalty for not using a child seat.
The law prohibits children from sitting in the front seat and makes child safety seats mandatory in the back seat. The law applies to children under the age of 12 who are less than 150 centimeters tall.
The penalty is 1,000 pesos for the first offense, 2,000 pesos for the second, and 5,000 pesos for the third.
In Japan, the age limit is under 6 years old, and there is no fine, just one point for violation, so the Philippines is much stricter.
The target vehicles are private automobiles, not tricycles or motorcycles.
Public transportation, such as buses and cabs, will be investigated and decided in the future.
It goes without saying that it is important to protect children from traffic accidents.
Tricycles are also quite dangerous, but considering that they are also public transportation, I guess this will be considered in future surveys.
My wife's parents live in Pinamagahan, which is just over the mountain from Cebu City, so we travel by car driven by her brothers.
Because of the traffic jam in the city, we drive quite fast when we get to the suburbs. In the case of Cebu, not only cars but also motorcycles and tricycles run in a jumble, and many of them don't even give directional signals, making it quite dangerous. So making child seats compulsory is not a bad thing.
Reading blogs and the like, the general consensus is that it is doubtful that the law will be properly enforced.
It seems that the law has been established, but it is difficult to implement.
The price of the child seat will also be a bottleneck.
The cheapest one is about 5,000 pesos, but I don't know how safe it is.
A good one made overseas costs 25,000 pesos, which is the equivalent of a month's salary for an average Filipino.
If you have more than one child, you will have to prepare more than one, which can be a headache for parents.
The car seat issue has a lot to do with me since cars are a necessity when I move to the Philippines.
I just hope that by the time I move to the Philippines, I will be able to get one through recycling.
