LTO chief’s resignation looms over plates, licenses

MANILA, Philippines - Land Transportation Office (LTO) director Alfonso Tan Jr. will reportedly leave his post this month.

He was allegedly pressured to resign over the shortage of car plates and problems on the issuance of driver’s licenses.

Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) executive secretary Roberto Cabrera will replace Tan, an LTO source said.

However, LTO spokesman Jason Salvador said there was “nothing official” when asked about Tan’s resignation.

Tan recently met with regional directors to inform them of his intention to resign before President Aquino steps down in June, an LTO source told The STAR.

“From what I’ve known, he is already 99.9 percent determined to resign by next year,” the source said. “He bid goodbye to the regional directors.”

Tan will resign as he believes that the problems hounding the LTO’s project will not be resolved until Aquino steps down, the source said.

In a previous interview, Tan dismissed as “speculative” reports that he would resign before Aquino’s term ends.

The Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) recommended Tan to head the LTO after former chief Virginia Torres retired in November 2013 when a video showing her playing in a casino went viral online.

Tan joined the LTO in September 2011 when then Transportation Secretary Manuel Roxas II named him executive director.

Over the past few years, transportation groups and the Commission on Audit (COA) have questioned some LTO projects.

In September 2013, the COA disallowed LTO’s payment to its previous driver’s license cards  supplier Amalgamated Motors Philippines Inc. (AMPI) for more than 20 years.         

AMPI said that they had difficulty supplying the license cards after the government did not pay them.

In May 2015, the DOTC awarded a new contract for the supply of five million driver’s license cards to Allcard Philippines Inc., which submitted the lowest bid of P336.87 million.

A Manila regional trial court, however, stopped the award and payment of the driver’s license card supply project to Allcard as there “appears to be no approved budget for the project.”

The COA has also ordered the LTO to stop the license plate deal with Dutch-Filipino consortium PPI-JKG Philippines Inc. for violating the procedures prescribed under Republic Act 9184, the Government Procurement Reform Act and its revised implementing rules and regulations. 

The LTO said they have coordinated with the Office of the Solicitor General to exhaust all legal remedies against the COA’s decision.

The LTO was also criticized for an administrative order requiring drivers to submit clearance from the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) and the Philippine National Police (PNP) before they can get their driver’s license.