DOTr chief’s license for demo purposes only

FILE PHOTO/ DOTr (Photo: Philippine News Agency)

MANILA — The Department of Transportation (DOTr) clarified Wednesday that Secretary Arthur Tugade has applied for a driver’s license for demonstration purposes only during the rollout of the 5-year validity license cards at the Land Transportation Office (LTO).

In a statement, DOTr said Tugade only wants to test the efficiency of the new system in renewing or applying for a driver’s license.

“Secretary Tugade only wanted to test how fast the new system is in renewing/applying for a driver’s license, from encoding of the driver’s data into the system up to the printing of license cards. In fact, he was clear in saying that he intentionally placed errors in the application form, which demonstrates that his purpose was not to get a license but to see and check if the system is efficient, and see for himself how long an encoder rectifies such a mistake,” according to the department.

The secretary instructed LTO chief Edgar Galvante to immediately erase his data in the system and cancel the license issued to him. He also urged the LTO chief to study measures on minimizing human intervention on the processing of applications for drivers licenses in order to eliminate corruption in the agency.

The LTO expects that with the issuance of the five-year license cards, it would be able to address the backlog in the issuance of driver’s licenses. The agency has more than three million backlogs nationwide from October 2016 to July 2017.

The LTO is eyeing to issue the license cards at its satellite offices in the National Capital Region (NCR) by the first week of September.

In Regions 3, 4-A and 11, the licenses will be available by middle of September while the rest of the country will be issued by October. (PNA)