You can have your driver’s license renewed in a matter of seconds without having to show up at the Land Transportation Office.
That is if a ranking lawmaker will have his way.
The LTO has been left behind in the computerization game while other countries have long embraced the online system of transactions with their publics.
Now House deputy majority leader Gerald Anthony Gullas Jr. of Cebu wants the LTO to adopt an information technology that would enable the online renewal of driver’s licenses and motor vehicle registration.
Drivers in other countries are able to renew their licenses and perform related transactions online:
• Renew a driver’s license and pay for the renewal via credit or debit card, or remote bank transfer;
• Request for their own driver record and pay for it;
• Pay traffic fines;
• Renew their motor vehicle registration and pay for it;
• Report the sale or transfer of car ownership and pay the appropriate fees;
• Report a change of address; and
• Set up an appointment with the local office of the transport regulator.
The LTO issues renewable professional and non-professional licenses for drivers as well as permits for conductors. It also gives out non-renewable student permits.
“Right now, some 53 percent of licenses and permits processed by the LTO every year are actually renewals, while some 80 percent of car registrations handled are also renewals,” Gullas said.
These renewals may be administered online easily once the agency adopts the appropriate information technology, he said.
“We are counting on the LTO to live up to the President’s wish, which is actually everybody’s wish, for all agencies to avoid unnecessarily aggravating the transacting public and to expedite the delivery of services,” Gullas said.
Duterte has repeatedly expressed aversion to people having to wait in line for hours whenever they have to deal with agencies.
He also recently voiced exasperation over lingering corruption at the LTO and Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB), and vowed to be harsher on officials of the two agencies attached to the Department of Transportation.
Gullas said hold-ups in the processing of all kinds of applications at the LTO as well as the LTFRB tend to increase the occasion for malfeasance.
“It is quite possible a number of agencies, not just in the DOTr but also in other departments, are somewhat resisting even simple technological innovations precisely because without the usual delays, people would have less opportunity to ‘fix’ delays and collect extra ‘facilitation’ fees,” Gullas said.
From January to June 2016, the LTO dispensed a total of 3,001,851 licenses and permits, up 4.23 from 2,880,000 in the same semester in 2015.
The LTO also registered 5,037,586 motor vehicles from January to June this year, up 5.0 percent from 4,797,839 in the same six-month period in 2015.
The agency likewise collected P493 million in fines from apprehensions and violations from January to June this year.