Continued suspension of Cyberlink recommended

MANILA, Philippines - The continued suspension of an information technology firm providing computer connectivity to private emission testing centers has been recommended by an audit team of the Land Transportation Office.

A PETC and smoke emission test monitoring team of the LTO, headed by lawyer Benjamin Mora, has reportedly recommended the continued suspension of Cyberlink Worldwide Network, Inc., for its failure to show compliance with requirements of IT providers of PETCs meant to prevent anomalies in smoke emission testing of vehicles seeking registration with the LTO.

In its one-page resolution submitted to LTO chief Arturo Lomibao, the PETC Monitoring Committee found Cyberlink to be guilty of “negligence to avert batch upload and incurred batch uploads for the second time and recommended a penalty of three months suspension with a fine of P70,000.

It will be recalled that Cyberlink has been put under a re-audit by the LTO after its one month suspension last year for involvement in so-called “non-appearance” smoke emission tests. The re-audt came after the lapse of a six month probation period during which its operations were closely monitored.

The monitoring team has come up with its recommendation after the IT firm was reportedly found to have again committed certain violations such as its failure to upload in “real time” photographs of actual smoke emission tests on vehicles.

Acording to LTO officials, the realtime upload of vehicle images is a cardinal rule among PETCs and its IT Providers in order to discourage and avoid tampering of the pictures usually done by unscrupulous PETCs and assure the validity and authenticity of the emission test data.

Any PETC or its IT provider found to be in violation of this rule is already subject to a penalty of no less than one month suspension and a corresponding P30,000 fine.

For repeat violators, penalty shall be more severe and could even result in cancellation of its authorization. – Rainier Allan Ronda