Only in Batanes: LTO office has only one worker

BASCO, Batanes — Only in Batanes! This is what visitors often say in describing the uniqueness of this northernmost province.

Indeed, it is only here — an entire province — where only one employee mans a district office of the Land Transportation Office (LTO).

No wonder, children who are barely in their teens, and adults without driver’s licenses drive around without fear of being apprehended.

Also, unregistered motor vehicles cruise the streets freely.

Severino Calvez Jr., officer-in-charge of the LTO office, is the agency’s do-it-all guy. While he is the big boss, he also performs janitorial work.

In between his regular duties and responsibilities, Calvez has to attend coordination meetings with other government agencies.

Traffic violators are apprehended only when he chances upon them. And seldom does this happen since he has to do voluminous clerical work like attending to applications for driver’s licenses, vehicle registration and routine reports to the LTO regional office in Tuguegarao City.

LTO records show there are 1,093 motor vehicles registered in the province as of Dec. 31. They include 836 motorcycles, 118 utility vehicles, 54 trucks, 54 tricycles and 31 jeepneys-for-hire.

However, the number of vehicles registered elsewhere but transported here cannot be determined.

"If all these vehicles are on the road everyday, how do you expect Calvez to monitor them and their drivers?" a traffic observer asked.

The good thing is that traffic accidents and violations are a rarity in this part of the country.

While most residents complain about the LTO’s seeming helplessness in apprehending unlicensed drivers and those driving unregistered vehicles, others think Calvez should be commended for doing such a gargantuan task.

"Considering the work he performs against the salary he gets, an LTO official of lesser moral values would have succumbed to the temptations around him," a local government official said.

"Calvez is the epitome of the lowly paid government official who still subscribes to the ideals that ‘a public office is a public trust,’" another official said.