Senator Raffy Tulfo

The Land Transportation Office (LTO) can collect billons of pesos if vision tests for driver’s license and emission tests for vehicles are done by the government instead of the private sector.

Senator Rafael ‘’Raffy’’ Tulfo made the proposal after he and his staff made an ocular visit at the LTO branch in Diliman, Quezon City Thursday, April 13 to confirm complaints about rampant corruption in the agency that amasses billions of pesos from collections yearly.

Tulfo said his ocular visit would help him in crafting legislation that would fix the agency’s ‘’rotten system’’ and hold accountable all officials behind reported corruption in the agency.

He particularly mentioned the P500 fee for vision test among applicants for new and renewal of driver’s license.

He said that billions collected from this are mostly going to ‘’fly-by-night outsourced vision test centers’’ situated near LTO office.

He said that LTO could offer these tests instead so the money collected from it could go to the public treasury and not to some ‘’hao siao’’ (illegitimate) outsourced eye exam clinics.

This way, the funds could be used for meaningful projects like free cataract surgery and eyeglasses for the poor, as well as research and treatment on vision and blindness, he pointed out.

The Senator from Isabela and Davao also noted that outsourced emission testing centers are also earning billions from car owners who are required by LTO to get a compliance certificate, which costs P500 per car.

He maintained that LTO could also be the one issuing compliance certificates so the funds collected from this could also be used for important projects like treatment of different kinds of cancer.

Meanwhile, Tulfo also wants to immediately stop the unjust requirement for car owners to get a Compulsory Third Party Liability (CTPL) amounting to more than P1,000 per car wanting to register, even though their vehicles already have the comprehensive insurance coverage.

Tulfo is eyeing to file said bill addressing all these issues once the Senate regular session resumes next month.