History repeats itself

“Those who do not learn from history are bound to repeat it.”

In the case of the Land Transportation Office, not only are they repeating history, the ending may also be the same.

According to a memo forwarded to me, no less than DOTC Secretary Leandro Mendoza has given Asec Lomibao 24 hours to explain: “the massive negative publicity arising from the LTO shortage of plates and stickers.”

The memo also “directed Lomibao’s attention” to the dire consequences resulting from this shortage, primarily in terms of the bogging down of the LTO system due to incomplete processing of transaction for motor vehicle registration.

The memo pointed out the “bad public perception of government’s image as shown by the LTO being incompetent and inefficient”, as well as the “negative impact on car sales and or proliferation of illegal activities by syndicate groups taking advantage of the shortage.”

Secretary Mendoza closed the memo by telling Lomibao “to immediately arrest the negative publicity, you are being directed to explain within 24 hours to the undersigned the circumstances surrounding this shortage and immediate actions that are being put to place.”

When Asec Lomibao came to the post, the original “plan” was supposed to be a temporary posting since he was intent on running for Congressman in Pangasinan, which in turn kept him busy as he surveyed and spent time going around Pangasinan and talking to would-be allies and supporters.

To make sure that everything went well, Lomibao reportedly brought in a 25-man team that holds fort at the LTO mezzanine floor. Soon enough the 25 man-committee got their fingers on contracts of the LTO’s existing suppliers.

In the meantime, long term employees and career officials of the LTO soon found life unbearable when the 25-man committee started to revive and resuscitate LTO officials who have been placed in the “freezer” for long term corruption and demanding fees from car manufacturers and importers.

There has also been a state of paranoia among LTO personnel because part of the psywar is that the 25-man team was using surveillance equipment they previously used under the National Anti-Kidnapping Task Force to randomly monitor LTO employees.

Not only did the 25-man committee interfere in LTO matters, a handful of them started to decide who got to see Lomibao. On one occasion, an ex-PNP even stopped closed friends of Lomibao whom the Asec had invited for lunch. One report even questioned how a lowly consultant could afford to drive around in a P2.5 million off road vehicle. 

As the 25-man team moved in, they also moved in on contracts but did not fully understand the process. What happened was they held biddings three months late, changed the established terms of reference for biddings, brought in new suppliers who in turn did not have the capability.

In doing so, they created a three-month supply gap designed to get worse with suppliers with no capacity to meet established requirements.

As all of this was happening Asec Lomibao became the victim of a double-whammy. After his initial foray into Pangasinan, Lomibao soon discovered that the support he had been hoping for from the administration had been passed on to another candidate.

Forced to carry on with his supposed “temporary” assignment, Lomibao came back to an LTO in chaos, unable to issue registration stickers, and with an almost “zero inventory” of car plates. To make matters worse, organic LTO personnel were already sending out information to various media organizations and persons like myself.

If the report is accurate, I am told that even the Commission on Audit is poised to send out a statement criticizing the terms and conditions surrounding the supply of registration stickers and recommending a refund of the LTO’s money.

Last I heard, Asec Lomibao was angrily shouting at his staff and demanding an explanation as to what and how all the problems happened. This would indicate that even with his 25-man committee, Lomibao was kept in the dark and now has to take the fall.

Asec Lomibao might want to verify some of the information I received from several people from different districts of the LTO as well as sources in the private sector.

I don’t know just how many suppliers are supplying what, but in case Lomibao wants to know, the asking “rate” from bidders was allegedly 10% commission. Every bidder or supplier was assigned to one member of the 25-man committee. At least two people mentioned are supposed to be doing media and PR work.

When it became clear that a shortage would take place, a memo was sent out that Requests for System Update were centralized, when this did not buy enough time, the LTO made a request to concerned authorities to relax on arresting vehicles without number plates under the guise that there was an unusually large sale and registration of new vehicles.

This was subsequently followed by a “press release” that the sticker shortage had already been fixed even when the scheduled supply was still two weeks away.

 Such a shortage is not new to the LTO. It has happened before and the official heading the LTO then also came from the PNP.

In much the same way, that general also had a bunch of not-so bright boys who wanted to cash in by bringing in their own suppliers to corner LTO contracts. In the end, the general got hell and had to pack his bags.

If it isn’t too late for Asec Lomibao, the only way to save the day is to get rid of the new suppliers as well as their assigned representative from the 25-man committee. “Call a friend” as they say on TV or get the old suppliers back because it has been 72 hours since the memo was written.