Major transport groups have expressed gratitude to Department of Transportation Secretary Jaime Bautista and Land Transportation Office (LTO) chief Vigor Mendoza II for their “aggressive action” to finally end the illegal operation of colorum public utility vehicles (PUVs).
The group, in a statement, said the current anti-colorum drive is an answered prayer for the long years of their complaints and battle to address the problem that has been affecting the daily income of legitimate drivers and operators across the country.
This developed as Mendoza ordered the deployment of more mystery colorum drivers to ensure the integrity of the implementation of the aggressive operations against the operation of colorum public utility vehicles (PUVs).
Mendoza also expressed gratitude to the transport groups for its commitment to provide mystery colorum drivers whose task is to give the LTO leadership all the necessary information on what is happening on the ground following the order of Transportation chief Bautista to further intensify the operations against the illegal operations that are affecting the daily income of legitimate PUV drivers and operators.
“Our aggressive drive against colorum PUVs will come with the effort on the part of the LTO to ensure the integrity of this campaign. Hindi dapat maging oportunidad ito para sa mga tiwaling tao para sa anumang extortion activities (It should not be an opportunity for the corrupt to engage in any form of corruption),” said Mendoza.
On Sunday, Mendoza ordered the relief of six LTO traffic enforcers and the filing of criminal and administrative charges against them that may lead to their dismissal from the agency.
Mendoza also ordered a thorough investigation into the team leaders of the LTO traffic enforcers for command responsibility and gross neglect of duty.
Mendoza said the deployment of mystery colorum drivers will be done nationwide and will focus more on major urban areas of the country.
Earlier, Mendoza also deployed mystery applicants for driver’s license and vehicle registration which was found effective in addressing the prevalence of fixers in all LTO agencies in a short period of time under his leadership.