The Land Transportation Office of the Philippines has long been known to be a wholly ineffective and inutile agency. From backlogs in issuing license plates to backlogs in issuing drivers licenses drivers have had their fill of failed promises from the LTO. When will driver's licenses be issued? Soon, says the LTO.
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| https://www.philstar.com/nation/2023/09/15/2296347/lto-may-resume-drivers-license-issuance-soon |
With at least one million plastic cards set to be delivered to the Land Transportation Office by the end of September, the LTO said yesterday it may resume the issuance of driver’s licenses soon.
LTO chief Vigor Mendoza said the 20-day temporary restraining order (TRO) issued in August by a Quezon City court, which stopped the awarding of the contract for the production of driver’s license cards had lapsed.
Mendoza said the agency is slowly building up supply of the driver’s license cards to address the estimated 2.4-million backlog.
“Tuloy-tuloy na ang delivery. We hope to complete one million license cards by the end of the month. Siguro kapag nakaisang milyon na, we will start working on the backlog,” he said in a radio interview.
According to Mendoza, the Quezon City Regional Trial Court is still hearing the petition filed by a losing bidder, which questioned the P240-million deal for the supply of five million plastic cards.
One million cards at the end of September would still have left a massive backlog. With the LTO's procurement deal being scrutinized by the court millions of more cards would remain undelivered meaning no solution to the backlog.
Until now.
Enter the Philippine Society of Medicine for Drivers. They have recently donated 4 million plastic cards to the LTO to finally clear out the backlog.
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| https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1876825/donor-to-give-lto-4-million-plastic-cards-for-drivers-license-in-january |
300,000 blank plastic cards on which driver’s licenses will be printed are set to be delivered by a donor organization to Land Transportation Office (LTO) on the first week of January 2024.
The agency said after this turnover, subsequent deliveries of 300,000 more pieces will be done every 15 days.
These movements will go on until a total of four million cards are brought to LTO.
The plastic cards are worth a total of P160 million.
LTO said the items are an “unconditional donation” for drivers from Philippine Society of Medicine for Drivers (PSMED).
PSMED is an association of medical clinics accredited by the agency.
“This donation is timely as it came at a time when we in the LTO are facing a serious challenge of addressing the backlog and daily usage of plastic-printed driver’s license amid the uncertainty on the outcome of the legal battle on the plastic cards that the LTO procured early this year,” LTO Chief Vigor Mendoza II said.
There are many questions here such as: from where did they procure these cards at a much lower price than the LTO?
It is a question of price and due process that is holding up the procurement of cards in the courts. The lowest bidder says he was wrongly denied the deal which was given to a higher bidder.
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| https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1818138/qc-court-issues-tro-to-stop-lto-in-delivery-processing-drivers-license-cards |
A temporary restraining order (TRO) has set back the Land Transportation Office’s (LTO) delivery and processing of plastic license cards meant to address the current backlog of 1.7 million cards.
In an order dated August 15, the Quezon City Regional Trial Court branch 215 issued a TRO against the LTO, effectively suspending its delivery of plastic license cards for 20 days.
The court’s order reflected a petition filed by AllCard Inc., a losing bidder for the supply of plastic cards, after it accused the Department of Transportation’s (DOTr) Centralized Bids and Awards Committee of committing grave abuse of discretion.
AllCard argued that it was disqualified even when it presented the lowest bid of P176,853,600, which was significantly lower than the P240.12 million budget approved for the plastic licenses.
The card supplier also pointed out that the LTO wrongfully accused it of having had delays in its ongoing projects with the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, Social Security System and the Land Bank of the Philippines without even giving the company a chance to verify it.
Furthermore, the firm also alleged that the LTO immediately awarded the deal to Banner Plasticard Inc., without even waiting for the reglementary period to file a protest to finish.
This, AllCard said, caused it “irreparable injury in terms of massive financial injury due to opportunity loss and injury to [its] reputation.”
The court then granted AllCard its petition, affirming how it was deprived of its right to due process.
“This case unfortunately reeks with unfairness or injustice to the petitioner who was clearly deprived of its right to due process, and deserving judicial intervention,” the order read.
Let's do the math here. AllCard's deal works out to 35 pesos per card while the winner, Banner Palsticard Inc., comes to 48 pesos per card. Amazingly the Philippine Society of Medicine for Drivers was able to procure 4 million cards at 40 pesos per card.
How was the Philippine Society of Medicine for Drivers able to get a significantly cheaper deal than the LTO? None of the articles discussing this story say. Why is Banner Palsticard Inc. printing cards for 13 pesos more than AllCard and 8 pesos more than the corporation from whom the Philippine Society of Medicine for Drivers procured cards? Again no article offers an explanation or even mentions that price disparity.
What we can take away from this ridiculous debacle is that the LTO is a corrupt and inept bureaucracy. They awarded the winning bid for plastic cards not to the lowest bidder as required by law, nor did they wait to hear the appeal from the losing bidder before finalizing the deal, and now a private organization has had to step in to correct everything. Maybe it's time to abolish the entire government and hand it over to the private sector.
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