Keeping gov’t personnel ‘honest’ – using GPS

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MANILA, Philippines — Marking them “For official use only’’ seems not enough.

A House bill wants all government vehicles to be installed with global positioning system (GPS) trackers to make their users think twice before making unauthorized or personal side trips.

For the third time, Nueva Vizcaya Rep. Luisa Lloren Cuaresma filed her pet bill, the draft “GPS Tracking Device Act,” as a way to “keep government employees honest”—at least in the use of state-funded transport and fuel.

READ: LTO to public: Report use of sirens and blinkers of gov’t, private vehicles

Cuaresma filed her bill first in 2017 and again in 2019, but it languished in the House committee on civil service and professional regulation.

She reintroduced it on Sept. 11 and had it tabled on Monday for review by the House committee on transportation.

Fuel-saving, too

“The knowledge that they can be tracked by GPS discourages drivers or public officers from making inappropriate use of the government-owned vehicles,” she said in her explanatory note for the bill.

The GPS requirement would also help government motor pools conserve fuel, as it jibes with the objectives of Republic Act 7638 or the Department of Energy Act of 1992, she added.

The system would help drivers “create and calculate more efficient routes, thereby invariably decreasing gas consumption and cost of vehicle maintenance.”

For DILG, COA to check

The bill covers all government agencies and, once enacted, gives them two months to make their vehicles GPS-ready.

It directs the Department of the Interior and Local Government and the Commission on Audit to monitor compliance or conduct surprise inspections if needed.

As a way to check, the ‘’travel orders’’ submitted by government personnel using the vehicles should match the stored GPS data.

Tampering with the GPS device or its data is punishable with one-year imprisonment and fines of up to P10,000.