LTO told: Rid agency of ‘fixers’ first

The Land Transportation Office (LTO) should focus on getting rid of fixers within the agency and improving its facilities instead of requiring applicants for a professional driver’s license to submit clearances from the police and National Bureau of Investigation (NBI).

Edgar Bansale, general manager of the National Confederation of Tricycle Operators and Drivers Associations of the Philippines (Nactodap), told the Inquirer Wednesday that while they were happy over the suspension of the LTO’s Administrative Order No. AVT-2015-029 imposing the additional requirements, they were also hoping that it would be rescinded eventually.

The LTO, Bansale added in a phone interview, should come up instead with solutions to ensure that reckless drivers would never get behind the wheel.

“They should be strict in giving licenses. Some motorcycle drivers aren’t qualified to drive cars and other vehicles but they get licenses to drive these once they give grease money,” Bansale said.

According to him, the LTO should also improve its facilities and services to allow it to determine whether an applicant is indeed qualified to drive.

At the same time, Bansale said the Nactodap remained doubtful of the real reason behind Transportation Secretary Joseph Emilio Abaya’s decision to suspend the implementation of the LTO administrative order on Tuesday as the Senate was conducting preliminary deliberations on his department’s proposed budget.

Abaya later clarified in a statement that those applying for a professional driver’s license would be asked to submit either a clearance from the police or the NBI, and not both.

Bansale, meanwhile, asked: “Was the order suspended because of the people’s outcry or because [Abaya] wanted their budget [to] be approved?”

The Nactodap on Monday asked the Pasig Regional Trial Court to stop the implementation of the “unconstitutional and oppressive” LTO order, saying the additional requirements were an added burden on public utility drivers while also depriving those who had violated the law of a second chance at making an honest living.

Under the LTO order, new and old applicants for a professional driver’s license should submit NBI and police clearances to prove that they have not “been convicted of any offense involving moral turpitude or reckless imprudence resulting from reckless driving.”