There should be no disagreement to the fact that professional drivers do need to be upgraded in a lot of aspects—education, training, competence and others. But the way the Land Transportation Office is going about to improve professional drivers’ competence is mystifying.
LTO administrative order AVT-2015-029 which was signed by the DOTC Secretary Abaya on Sept. 22, 2012 aims to require people applying for a professional driver’s license to secure a National Bureau of Investigation and a Philippine National Police clearance before their applications can be processed. The LTO seems to believe that people with criminal records are dangerous as professional drivers. It might interest the LTO to know that there is no law as far as I know disqualifying an ex-convict from earning a living as a driver.
Granting that the intention is good—the public indeed would be better served by trained drivers who have spotless records—it is still the wrong solution to the problem and is totally unnecessary. The LTO is just passing what it should be doing in the first place to other government agencies. This will just add another layer of red tape to the already harassed applicant.
What the LTO should do is overhaul and reform itself so that it can function more efficiently. The LTO issues licenses and can impose administrative penalties to all erring drivers. But it does not have a national database of all traffic violators so that those undesirable drivers could have their licenses cancelled without having to involve the NBI and PNP.
Since 1980, the LTO has consistently refused to computerize its records for a more efficient management of the agency. This was because completely computerizing the LTO would affect the money-making ventures of some people in the agency. Up to this time, the LTO is not completely computerized. It is not difficult to imagine why. For one reason or another, the LTO finds it hard to openly share its records with other law enforcement agencies. This is one reason why car theft or carnapping is still flourishing to this day. Traffic violators also easily get away with their offenses. In the United States, one can never get away with a traffic violation. Even a simple parking ticket can follow a person anywhere. The reason is that records of apprehensions are completely computerized. A professional driver in this country, however, could have 20 apprehensions a year including perhaps a fatal accident and the LTO would be clueless about this. The PNP and NBI are also completely ignorant about the record of such a driver because the NBI does not do traffic enforcement. Hence, it has no record and not all PNP units are deputized to enforce traffic laws by the LTO. Thus, they also would not have a record.
Only the LTO should have a record of such a driver, yet it wants other agencies to clear a prospective professional driver when it should be doing it. It is totally incomprehensible. Yet, Secretary Abaya, an engineer and a lawyer who should have known better, signed the administrative order. It is disappointing, but perhaps not surprising anymore. Was it not Secretary Abaya, who said that the traffic problem in Metro Manila is not fatal? Was it not his boss, the President, said that the bullet-planting scandal at our airports and ports has been blown out of proportion?
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The President has just issued an order to the Armed Forces and the Philippine National Police for an intensified campaign against terrorists groups, most especially the Abu Sayyaf, an armed group that is basically a kidnap for ransom outfit but a terrorists group nonetheless.
This is an offshoot of a United Nations Security Council resolution authored by France, which was passed unanimously urging all countries to unite and fight terrorism in all its shape and form. We are good and quick to jump into these kinds of things to show that we as a country can be depended upon to do our share.
But maybe we should not be so gung-ho on this. After all, our record in fighting the Abu Sayyaf is dismal. The Abu Sayyaf has been operating with complete impunity over the years and we cannot do anything about it. During the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting, a Malaysian captive of the group was beheaded, infuriating the Malaysians. The group is still holding three foreigners and a Filipina and is demanding P3 billion for the release of the victims.
The government does not seem to have the resolve to confront the Abu Sayyaf problem once and for all. And because of Mamasapano, it is also doubtful whether the order can be carried out with any degree of enthusiasm by the AFP and the PNP. Mamasapano has been a harrowing experience for the PNP-Special Action Force. I have it from a good source that the officers and men of the unit are trying their best to avoid any mission that would involve combat or other police operations that would require contact with armed groups to avoid what happened to the SAF officers in the Mamasapano operation. Instead of appreciation and medals for the sacrifices performed, what these officers got were cases filed against them.
If the government is serious about destroying the Abu Sayyaf group, it must be ready to provide the necessary means for our armed services to accomplish its mission to neutralize the group. If we can afford P10 billion to throw a big shindig, then we can surely afford to spend more than that to improve the capability of our fighting men so that the Abu Sayyaf can be eliminated once and for all.
