A transport group of Thursday hailed a plan by the Department of Transportation (DOTr) to scrap its P69-computer fee for the processing of renewal of public utility vehicle registration and miscellaneous transactions.
THE Federated Land Transport Organizations of the Philippines (FELTOP) commended Transportation Secretary Jaime Bautista for exhibiting sensibility and responsiveness to public concerns, specifically their objection to the reimposition of the P169-computer fees charged on the renewal of PUV registration and other related transactions.
“We are pleasantly surprised that the Secretary had granted us an audience to listen to our issues. And what makes this more special is that Sec. Bautista had promised immediate action by telling us that he will order the P169 computer fee being collected by the LTO to be stopped as soon as possible,” FELTOP leader Jun Rustico Braga said.
He clarified however, that the pledge of Bautista to recall the collection of the P169-computer fees only covers the PUV sector.
FELTOP filed last month a graft case against Land Transportation Office (LTO) chief, Vigor Mendoza II over the alleged “anomalous” collection of the P169 -ee for processing of registration renewals.
This particular fee was removed earlier when the LTO, under the Duterte administration, implemented the computerization of their in-house information technology (IT) systems and contracted for the setting up of the Land Transportation Management System (LTMS) by the German-led Dermalog-Holy Family Printing Corp. joint venture.
Another transport group, the PISTON, filed on Wednesday a petition before the Supreme Court (SC) seeking the lifting of the government’s Public Utility Vehicle Modernization Program (PUVMP).
In its plea, Piston asked the SC to issue a temporary restraining order of a writ of preliminary
injunction to prevent the DOTr and the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) from carrying out the PUVMP.
The PUVMP mandates the mandatory consolidation of individual operators under transport cooperatives and corporations prior to the issuance of new franchises in favor of these entities as part of the PUVMP.
