The Marcos Jr. administration is looking to digitalize more processes of the Land Transportation Office (LTO) to serve the public and its stakeholders faster and more efficiently.

“Isa sa mga ginagawa namin para mapagtibay ang digitalization ay talagang pinapadali namin iyong pag-transact ng mga publiko sa ahensya po namin (One of our initiatives is to digitalize our transactions at LTO),” Assistant Secretary Jose Arturo Tugade, LTO chief, said at the Saturday News Forum in Quezon City.

LTO, which is tasked to register motor vehicles, issue driver’s/conductor’s licenses and permits, enforce transportation laws, rules and regulations and adjudicate apprehension cases, has recently allowed private motor vehicle owners to renew their registration online.

Through an online portal, vehicle owners will only need two requirements when renewing their registration – an inspection receipt from a private motor vehicle inspection center and a Compulsory Third Party Liability car insurance.

“Bukod doon, marami pa tayong mga problema na nakikita sa ating ahensya at iyong mga problema na iyon ay ina-analyze po natin, ini-evaluate natin (Aside from the we need to address other issues and we are now assessing and evaluating how we can computerize the process), and we are trying to see how we can digitalize or computerize the process,” Tugade said.

Apart from streamlining license application and vehicle registration, the LTO chief said the agency will digitalize transactions for dealers, manufacturers, assemblers, importers, and rebuilders.

Tugade said the digitalization projects are on top of its existing programs and mechanisms that would guard the public against fixers and corruption.

The agency has also signed a memorandum of agreement with the Department of Information and Communications Technology to help the agency in storing, managing, controlling, and maintaining its technology requirements.

Driving school rates capped

In the same forum, Tugade said LTO will also issue an order putting a cap on driving school rates by the end of the month.

“Kami ngayon sa LTO, maglalabas kami ng standard rate fees na kailangang sundin ng ating mga driving schools (For us at LTO, we will release a standard rate fees that driving schools need to follow),” he said amid concerns over exorbitant rates being charged by driving schools.

“[H]indi po matatapos iyong month of March, magkakaroon na iyan ng order from our office. At before the end of March, malaki ang ginhawa at tulong na sana ang maibigay po ng LTO doon sa mga student driver applicants natin (This will released before the end of March and we hope this will help our student driver applicants),” he added.

Citing complaints from some applicants, Tugade said some schools allegedly charge up to PHP20,000.

“Again, iyong standard fees na ilalabas po namin is the maximum (Again, the standard fees that we will release is the maximum),” he added without revealing the proposed ceiling price. (PNA)