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Friday, March 29, 2024

LTO radio ID project junked

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THE Supreme Court nullified the Radio Frequency Identification Project Memorandum of Agreement entered into by the government with Stradcom Corp. in 2009 without public bidding.

The RFID project of the Land Transportation Office entails an additional charge of P350 for every motor vehicle.

In a decision written by Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno, the SC granted the petitions filed by Bayan Muna Reps. Satur Ocampo, Teodoro Casiño, Anakpawis Rep. Joel Maglungsod, Gabriela Women’s Party Rep. Liza Maza, Pagkakaisa ng mga Samahan ng Tsuper at Operator Nationwide and Automobile Association of the Philippines seeking to declare the project unconstitutional.

The tribunal also ordered a refund of the RFID fees collected during the project’s implementation prior to the Court’s issuance of a status quo ante  order last Jan. 12, 2010, which enjoined its enforcement.

Court records showed that the LTO had already generated P29,894,200 in RFID fees during its implementation.

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“The RFID fees collected during the implementation of the RFID Project prior to the issuance of this Court’s status quo ante Order are likewise ordered refunded to the payors thereof,” the tribunal declared.

Under the RFID project, all vehicles would be required to install stickers containing a microchip that stores vehicle information.

It is an automatic identification technology whereby digital data encoded in an RFID tag or “smart label” are captured by a reader using radio waves.

For a one-time fee of P350, the LTO had planned to install the RFID tags on some 4,760,593 vehicles, which is expected to raise P1.6 billion in revenues. 

The RFID tag, which is intended to last for 10 years, will be procured from Stradcom Corp.

Stradcom said the RFID project was an enhancement to the current motor vehicle registration system, thus, there was no need for a public bidding for the project.

On June 16, 2009, the RFID MoA was entered into between Stradcom and the government through the Department of Transportation and Communications and the Land Transportation Office.

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