CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY – As part of the agency’s modernization program, the Land Transpiration Office of Northern Mindanao (LTO-10) is set to digitalize the issuance of traffic citation tickets against traffic violators next week. Santino Aguilar, LTO-10 law enforcement section officer-in-charge, said in a phone interview on Tuesday, Jan. 31, that the Law Enforcement Handheld Mobile Device will be used for issuing electronic Temporary Operators’ Permit (e-TOP) in order to hasten the submission of violators’ details to the LTO system. Apart from that, the carriers of expired and fake drivers’ licenses have also been warned as the said device can easily detect expired and counterfeit licenses. “We will just properly place the camera and scan the barcode of the driver’s license. The owner’s details will appear, and we can also verify if the driver’s license is fake or not,” Aguilar said in vernacular. The said mobile device also has facial recognition feature to verify the license carrier just in case the physical license has defects, where the barcode is unclear. It can also verify the vehicle’s registration by getting the plate number, which would also possibly lead to the identification of colorum Taxis, Aguilar said. Despite the presence of the law enforcement handheld mobile device, LTO enforcers must also secure the manual procedure in providing traffic citation tickets as a contingency plan if the device experiences technical issues. Two subscriber identity module (SIM) cards can also be inserted to the said mobile device to ensure fast internet connectivity, although it can still be used without internet connection. The LTO-10 has already conducted training and even dry runs in the past few days in preparation for the upcoming implementation. LTO chief Jose Arturo ‘Jay Art’ Tugade already confirmed on Monday, Jan. 30, that the implementation of the said digital device will be next week. However, the LTO-10 has yet to receive the memorandum from the central office. Nevertheless, Aguilar said the LTO region 10 is all set to implement the said development once they receive the guidelines. The LTO region 10 has more or less 63 law enforcement handheld mobile devices, which were already being distributed to various LTO offices in the Northern Mindanao region.