By Alexandria San Juan
A stricter policy on the issuance of driver’s licenses to new applicants – one of them passing a 15-hour class – will be implemented by the Land Transportation Office (LTO) in a bid to ensure safer roads through law-abiding drivers, a transport official said Monday.
LTO Assistant Secretary Edgar Galvante said that the agency will be requiring new applicants to pass a 15-hour lecture on road rules and driving laws before they can apply for a student permit.
Land Transportation Office (LTO) (MANILA BULLETIN)
"Tungkol sa pag-issue ng student permit, kakailanganin muna na magdaan sila sa 15-hour lecture kung saan ituturo dito 'yung mga batas trapiko, 'yung rules and regulations ng paggamit ng kalsada, 'yung road courtesy (On the issuance of a student permit, they will first need to attend a 15-hour lecture where they will be taught traffic laws, rules and regulations on the road, and road courtesy, among others)," Galvante said in a press briefing in Pasay City.
"Maraming nagsasabi na marami ang marunong magdrive pero hindi marunong magbasa, ang sagot namin dito, marunong sila magbasa, hindi lang sila marunong sumunod (They say that many people know how to drive but they do not know how to read. For us, they know how to read well, they just do not know how to obey rules),” he said.
According to Galvante, the applicant will be given a certificate of completion after the lecture and then a student permit so that they can enroll at any accredited driving school or at the LTO Training Offices.
After the driving course, Galvante said that applicants must also pass both theoretical and practical driving exams to be supervised by the LTO, before obtaining a non-professional license. A professional license can be applied for after at least a year.
“Before, a month after being given a student permit, you can apply for a non-professional (license) already, or a professional license after only six months. That is not allowed now,” he said in Pilipino.
“The applicant must go through the process of obtaining a non-professional license first and will be only allowed to apply for a professional license after about a year, but then, before being granted a professional license, the applicant must still pass the theoretical and practical exam,” he said in Pilipino.
During the same forum, the Department of Transportation's first "Transport Talks" this year, Galvante bared that the LTO will begin to implement the 10-year validity of driver's license by October 2021 as directed by Congress.
However, Galvante explained that not all who will apply for a license by the time of the implementation will be provided with a license valid for 10 years.
The LTO chief said that the agency is set to implement a penalty point or demerit point system wherein the validity of the license will be based on the driver's number of violations.
“We will be implementing a demerit system wherein there will be a threshold that if the driver exceeds the allowable number of violations, the license that will be given will be less than 10 years. If the record is clean and there is no violation, they will be given a 10-year license validity,” he clarified.
With these changes, Galvante reminded the public that having a driver's license is a privilege.
“These are some of the improvements that we are doing. Applicants may find it difficult, but we want to emphasize that driving is a privilege. If they do not meet the requirements they should not be given a license,” he said in Pilipino.