Why go into contract with a foreign company to manufacture car plates when they can be made locally?
The answer to that is obvious to anyone with a suspicious mind who’s inured to the wiles of our government officials to make money while at the helm of power.
If we recall, car plates were manufactured here by a local company with links to a religious sect that supported two former presidents. The Filipino firm also had a lock on the printing of drivers’ licenses during the time of the LTO chief who was a member of the religious sect.
Car plates can be made here. In the United States, car plates are made by minimum security prison inmates who are paid at least a dollar a plate turned out which they can collect when released after serving their sentences. The same can be done here. Prisoners at the New Bilibid in Muntinlupa can be kept productively busy instead of allowing them so much free time to engage in their business-as-usual, drug-trafficking and karaoke entertainment that go on under the very noses of prison guards.
The P3.8-billion contract entered into by Land Transportation Office head Jose Lotilla and Transportation Secretary Joseph Emilio Abaya with a Dutch-Filipino consortium is being questioned by the Commission on Audit as irregular and spurious. The CoA based its findings on the complaint of losing bidders and the public who claimed the Dutch company, JKG Knierman, was undercapitalized, while its Filipino partner Power Plates Inc. has allegedly had been barred from participating in public biddings. They want the government to recover P470 million already paid in advance to the Dutch-Filipino consortium.
The LTO deal came to the fore again when the Bureau of Customs threatened to seize several container vans of car plates imported by the Dutch company for failing to pay import duties. The LTO and the Dutch manufacturer are pointing to each other as to who should pay the import taxes levied on the shipment. The LTO, reacting to an earlier column the on the stuck shipment at the pier, assured the public the plates will be released.
Customs Commissioner Bert Lina warned that he will consider the shipment abandoned and then auction it. What about the motorists who already paid for these undelivered car plates? They have been waiting for these new plates for almost a year while they drive around with temporary stickers issued by the LTO. Criminals take advantage of the proliferation of temporary plates when committing a crime using stolen vehicles.
A dead-heat presidential race
This year’s presidential election is turning out to be a horse race with the top two finishers probably ending up in a dead heat. The latest Pulse Asia poll survey showed Senator Grace Poe and Vice President Jejomar Binay practically tied for first place with 26 and 25 percent, respectively. Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte and former Interior Secretary Mar Roxas are also tied, sharing second place with an identical 21 percent of voter respondents polled for their preferred presidential bets.
Poe, whose citizenship challenge is still hanging fire at the Supreme Court which is set to rule on it any day, regained the top position over Binay who had earlier snatched the lead. But don’t rule out Duterte and Roxas just yet. They could overtake the leaders at the homestretch of the campaign with elections on May 9 only two months away.
In the vice presidential race, Senators Francis Escudero and Ferdinand Marcos Jr. are statistically tied with Chiz slightly ahead at 29 percent while Bongbong is closing in at 26 percent. Camarines Sur Rep. Leni Robredo, Roxas’ running mate, is third with 19 percent.
One misstep or misspoke like what happened to Manny Pacquiao’s worse-than-animals remark on the LGBT community slightly dimmed the boxing icon’s bid for the Senate. His popularity is also at stake when he takes on Timothy Bradley in their April rematch in Las Vegas. Will he lose some of his supporters if he is beaten by Bradley?
Poe’s ambivalent statement on a hero’s burial at the Libingan ng Mga Bayani for former President Ferdinand Marcos almost did her in. Vice President Binay campaign promise to pursue the Philippine claim to Sabah may have earned him points from Mindanao voters. But he drew a strong response from the Malaysian government which said Sabah is a closed issue, with the people in the disputed state having already voted to stay with the Malaysian Federation.
