A transport group has filed before the Office of the Ombudsman a complaint against Land Transportation Office (LTO) Chief Assistant Secretary Vigor Mendoza, accusing him of corruption through the agency’s digitalization of its processes.
Mendoza denied the accusation and described it as “baseless and absurd,” CNN Philippines said in a report.
The Federated Land Transport Organizations of the Philippines (FELTOP), in its complaint, said that since 2017, its drivers and operators would register vehicles and renew driver’s licenses through the LTO-IT system run by Stradcom Corp.
The IT company would charge a “computer fee” in exchange for collecting, keeping, and uploading data to their database. The transport group said the LTO passed the computer fee to motorists.
In 2020, the LTO launched the government-run Land Transportation Management System (LTMS), which does not charge a computer fee for motorists’ transactions.
In January this year, former LTO Chief Jose Arturo Tugade issued memorandum circular 2023-2373 fully implementing the LTMS for vehicle registration and subsequently phasing out the LTO-IT system.
However, FELTOP said that some of its members, part of Evergreen Transport, were charged computer fees worth ₱169.09, according to vehicle registration receipts dated between October and November this year.
The group alleged Mendoza issued an unnumbered memorandum in August 2023 allowing the simultaneous use of both the LTO-IT and the LTMS system due to “alleged lingering performance issues and unresolved service tickets brought about by its limitation.”
Furthermore, memorandum circulars VDM-2023-2427 and VDM-2023-2440, both issued in October 2023, amended the receipt printing policy, so that transactions conducted under LTO-IT appeared to have been processed under the LTMS, resulting in computer fees charged to motorists.
In November, Mendoza reportedly issued another unnumbered memorandum ordering regional directors, assistant regional directors, division heads of central and regional offices, heads of district or extension offices, and LTO employees to process new registrations and miscellaneous transactions for public utility vehicles under the LTO-IT.
FELTOP alleged that this was a violation of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act, as Mendoza – a public official – acted in “evident bad faith” by issuing these memorandums and re-implementing the use of LTO-IT, as motorists had to pay the computer fee.
Mendoza also showed “evident partiality” or favor towards Stradcom, the transport group alleged in its complaint.
On Thursday night, Mendoza denied FELTOP’s claims and said that he had been addressing the issues enumerated in the complaint since he assumed the LTO post in July.
“On the digitalization for instance, we have already successfully consolidated all the online transactions using the LTMS, which means the transactions now are more convenient and hassle-free for all our clients,” he said. “And this was done in just four months after I assumed office.”
“Meanwhile, your LTO is on the right track of addressing the millions of backlogs in the license plates since we are now producing one million metal plates a month,” referring to another complaint filed against him before the Ombudsman.
He welcomed the filing of the cases and said it would be a good opportunity to prove that the allegations were baseless. With Rio Araja