Transport groups back LTO's RFID project

MANILA, Philippines - Most public transport groups expressed support for the implementation of the radio- frequency identification (RFID) project of the Department of Transportation and Communications and the Land Transportation Office (LTO), saying they will not participate in any transport holiday being planned by militant transport group PISTON or the Pagkakaisa ng mga Samahan ng Tsuper at Opereytor Nationwide.

Robert “Obet” Martin, president of Pasang Masda, said that many other transport groups were in support of the LTO program, seeing it as a solution to the problem of out-of-line jeepney and bus units littering the country’s major thoroughfares.

Martin said that his member operators and drivers are even ready to be tagged  prior to the mandatory tagging period to start by January.

“The RFID tags can enable the traffic enforcers to easily detect the out-of-line and colorum jeepneys which will eventually ease the traffic flow in major roads in Metro Manila.” Martin said. He said other transport groups under the umbrella of the 1-UTAK party-list coalition such as the Association of Taxi Operators in Metro Manila, the Alliance of Concerned Transport Organizations, Alliance of Transport Operations and Drivers, Land Transportation Organization of the Philippines (LTOP), Integrated Bus Operators Association (INTERBOA), Provincial Bus Operators Association of the Philippines, Metro Manila Bus Operators Association, Federation of Jeepney Operators and Drivers Association of the Philippines (FEJODAP), Metrobus, and Transporter are united in their support for the RFID project.

Support for RFID

Aside from the public transport group, a group of logistics operators led by Air21 and Federal Express have pledged their support to the LTO’s RFID project saying it can help ease flow of traffic and facilitate the movement of goods as well as other benefits to the transportation and business sector.      

1-UTAK, the largest transport coalition in the country, represented by its key officials and members earlier had signed a manifesto urging President Arroyo to implement the LTO’s RFID program to help solve the perennial colorum problem.      

1-UTAK party list Rep. Vigor Mendoza said that they see the LTO’s RFID project as a viable solution to the decades old problem of colorum. Efren de Luna, president of ACTO, for his part expressed his group’s support for the project citing its potential to make transactions in the LTO less prone to human intervention and manipulation. – Rainier Allan Ronda