LTO-7 nixes move to suspend licenses of abusive drivers

The Land Transportation Office-7 has rejected the resolution of the City Traffic Operations Management to suspend the licenses of hundreds of drivers who were apprehended more than thrice for traffic violations within a one-year period.

The Citom Board earlier approved a resolution urging the LTO to implement Section 27 of Republic Act 4136, or the Transportation and Traffic Code, which provides that the licenses of drivers, arrested at least three times within a year, may be suspended or revoked.

LTO-7 legal officer Vicente Gador Jr. however contended that while Citom has a list of the erring drivers, it did not specify their respective offenses, whether violations of RA 4136 or an infraction of a city ordinance.

Gador said, assuming that the traffic laws and regulations violated are that of the City of Cebu, it is imperative also to determine first if these did not conflict with the provisions of RA 4136.

Granting further that city traffic laws are the ones violated, Gador said traffic enforcers should issue temporary operators permit, not just mere citation, in apprehending the drivers.

The difference between the two documents is that those charged and fined at the LTO, using the temporary operators permit as stipulated in RA 4136, can be penalized with the suspension or revocation of their licenses, said Gador.

When a TOP is issued to an erring driver, the apprehending officer could already confiscate the driver's license, unlike with citation tickets for which they could only note the specific offense and have it recorded with the Citom's traffic violations bureau.

It was learned that many of those drivers whose names Citom had submitted to LTO-7 were apprehended with the use of citation tickets only. Only a few of the more than 200 traffic enforcers in the city have been deputized with the LTO to issue a TOP.

If the traffic enforcers will use a TOP in apprehending an erring driver, they should make sure to state that the offense committed is a violation of a provision in RA 4136, with the fines going to the national coffers. The city, however, is paying the Citom enforcers.

Gador further noted that some of the drivers in the Citom list were already suspended or are still under suspension. - Rene U. Borromeo/RAE