Atty. Teofilo “Jojo” Guadiz, the new Land Transportation Office (LTO) Assistant Secretary, plans to fulfill the two marching orders given to him: to improve the quality of service and reduce the cost of license application and renewal.
He said he will change several items in the long list of requirements when applying for a license, including the 15 hours of seminars and 8 hours of practical driving course.
“Baka pwede po yung seminar na 15 hours po ay gawin nalang po namin ng 3 oras. I-compress yung batas na dapat malaman. Then yung driving course, i-compress na rin to 3 hours. Anyway po, pagdating naman sa LTO niyan, bibigyan po ng examination lahat yan. Kung hindi ka man makapasa, ibig sabihin kailangan mo repasuhin ang mga batas road safety at batas ng LTO,” he said in an interview with Gerry Baja and Anthony Taberna during DZRH’s Dos por Dos on Friday, Aug. 5.
Guadiz also plans to reduce the cost of the license application to Php 1,000 or Php 1,500 from the original cost of Php 5,000-6,000.
He said reducing the cost will eliminate fixers who are offering faster ways of getting driver’s licenses or student permits for a high fee.
“Nagkalat po yung fixers, paano po kasi yung proseso po ay mahaba at mahirap. Kung ito ay i-simplfy mo lang, siguro mababawasan ang fixer and ultimately po, ang wish ko lang po bago mag step down ay mawala na po yung fixer sa LTO,” he explained.
Guadiz said he formed a technical working group that studies the implementation of the reforms in driver's license application, and in 30 days, they are planning to pilot test the study results in the National Capital Region (NCR).
The new LTO chief also shared that they are experiencing 10 million backlogs or unfinished license plates for motorcycles from 2016 to 2018.
He said the backlog came from the old administration and wasn’t addressed immediately due to the lack of machinery.
“Tinitignan namin kung pwedeng bumili ng extra machine dahil naka 16 hours shift na po yung mga robots. Pwede po nating i-source out muna ito habang kami ay bumibili ng makina. In that way po, yung backlog na yan ay maayos na po dahil more than 6 years na po namin pinag-uusapan yung backlog na ‘to,” he added.
If the LTO will not purchase extra machinery, Guadiz said their present robots cannot handle the number of backlogs.
Guadiz was the former director of the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) and the Regional Director of the LTO-Region 1 Ilocos.
