LTO eyes adding requirements for license applicants, penalty for road rage

MANILA, Philippines — The Land Transportation Office (LTO) on Tuesday said that it is planning to profile driver’s license applicants and determine whether they own guns, as well as to propose specific penalties against road rage suspects before Congress.

LTO chief Vigor Mendoza II said they are currently studying how to make these plans possible through coordinating with the Philippine National Police (PNP) Highway Patrol Group (HPG) and other concerned government agencies amid the increasing cases of road rage incidents.

“Nakikipagugnayan kami sa HPG para yung aming datos at datos nila mapagsama namin so we can get a profiling ba […] Gusto ko nga maprofile para sa ganun sa pagbibigay ng lisensya pwede namin incorporate sa requirements kasi yung pinakagrabe dito yung may firearms,” Mendoza told reporters on Tuesday.

(We are coordinating with HPG to merge our data so we can profile driver’s license applicants. We want to determine those who own guns so we can incorporate it into the license application.)

He also wanted to determine PNP’s requirements and basis for issuing permits to own and possess firearms as part of LTO’s plan to profile driver’s license applicants.

Moreover, Mendoza claimed that the penalty for road rage suspects is “prohibitive,” as he pointed out that it cannot be higher than four years of suspension or revocation of license.

“That four years would be merong death or injury eh kung walang death or injury pero sobra sobra naman yung road rage niya [dapat] may special law siya, yung penalty niya would not be just a simple violation of  [Republic Act] 4136 reckless driving. Specific penalty talaga we file it and penalize road rage [suspects],” he explained.

(Four years of suspension or revocation of license involved incidents with death or injury, so road rage suspects incidents should have a special law with a penalty for a simple violation of RA 4136 or reckless driving. A specific penalty so we can file it and penalize road rage suspects.)

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JPV