DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 17 Sept) – The Land Transportation Office (LTO) 11 has recorded a total of 58,009 backlogs in the issuance of driver’s license in the Davao Region as of August this year, an official said on Thursday.
Bulk of these backlogs are recorded in Davao City, with 21,238 of the unissued licenses at the Metro Davao Licensing Center and 18,688 at the Driver’s License Renewal Center at the SM City Davao.
During the iSpeak Forum on Thursday, LTO 11 director Gomer J. Dy said the delivery of cards, which are used to print the driver’s license, by its previous provider, Amalgamated Philippines Inc., could not keep up with the number of applications a day. The agency receives more than 700 applications and renewals a day, he said.
“If the cards are delivered on time, then within the week we can release the license,” he said.
The problem with the old provider, Dy added, was that delivery of cards was made in tranches. Thus, they cannot fast-track printing of the licenses.
Since July this year, the LTO 11 has a new provider, All Cards Plastics Inc., a Davao City-based company.
Go added they may bring down license fees by 50 percent because the new provider offers them much cheaper cards. At present, the license fee costs P375, he said.
He also boasted of its more efficient processing time of around 30 minutes per transaction, adding that there will be delay in the processing only when the servers are down.
LTO 11 issued a total of 162,003 licenses and permits as of August this year, up from 154,062 released in the same period last year.
The region has around 350,000 registered vehicles.
Also, the agency recorded a more than twofold increase in collections from license renewals and new applications and fines at P526 million as of August as compared to P218 million in the same period last year.
Dy reminded the public to avoid dealing with fixers who he said still make it inside their office by pretending that they have transactions with them.
“Our licensing staff will no longer validate if they are indeed the one whom they are transacting with,” he said.
He added that even if they know about the presence of the fixers waiting for their prospective victims outside the LTO building, they cannot drive them away, adding they would defend themselves by saying they are in a public area.
Dealing with fixers is prohibited under Republic Act (RA) 9485, also known as Anti-Red Tape Act of 2007, “an act to improve efficiency in the delivery of government service to the public by reducing bureaucratic red tape and preventing graft and corruption.”
Section 12 of RA 9485 states that “fixers shall suffer the penalty of imprisonment not exceeding six years of a fine of not less than P20,000 but not more than P200,000 or both at the discretion of the court.”
