Cotabato City”•The Department of Transportation has turned over the facilities of the Land Transportation Franchise and Regulatory Board in Region 12 to the Ministry of Transportation and Communications of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.
Officials marked the historic occasion on Sept. 12 with a caravan of modern public utility vehicles, which were showcased at Camp Siongco.
Transportation Secretary Arthur Tugade graced the two events with LTFRB Chairman Martin Delgra, as they unveiled the modern PUVs for the region’s transport organizations.
Tugade emphasized that the application for a PUV franchise only requires a processing fee of P500.
The turnover of LTFRB-12’s facilities began with a ribbon-cutting by Tugade and BARMM Interim Chief Minister Ahod Balawag Murad Ebrahim Al-Haj, as witnessed by MOTC-BARMM Minister Dickson P. Hermoso, MOTC Deputy Minister Von Al Haq, and the new LTFRB-BARMM Head, Akmad Brahim.
“I come here to say to BARMM-MOTC Minister Dickson Hermoso and BARMM Interim Chief Minister Ebrahim that the DOTr and LTFRB are in full support in whatever way that we could be of help, we will do it,” Tugade said.
Ebrahim said he “greatly appreciated” the turnover of the refurbished LTFRB 12 building inside the BARMM compound.
After a series of coordination meetings in Davao City and Koronadal City a few months ago, the turnover was made possible through the endeavors of Delgra and LTFRB 12 Regional Director Paterno Reynato Padua.
MOTC Minister Hermoso said: “The office of MOTC is a revenue collection office of BARMM, however, we will not focus on revenue collection alone. Our primary mandate is public service; that is what we have to change in our transition period until 2022.”
“You are our clients and at the same time you are our boss. I will give you the assurance that whenever you visit our office for any transaction, we will be offering you a modernized, A class kind of service in our different sectoral offices,” he told the crowd.
“We are gearing towards modernization of our government service so as to curb corruption through automation. However, we cannot do it all by ourselves, we need your full support and cooperation,” Hermoso added.
