Antipolo City 2nd Rep. Romeo Acop (PPAB)

The House Committee on Transportation learned from the Land Transportation Office (LTO) Monday, May 13 that the agency wasn't amenable to terminating its land transportation management system (LTMS) contract with its German information technology (IT) service provider, Dermalog.

This, after LTO Chief Assistant Secretary Vigor Mendoza admitted to the House members that the agency does not have the capability to take over the system.

The LTMS processes the registration of millions of motor vehicles and driver's licenses in the country every year.

“We cannot on our own run the system without the assistance of our IT service provider Dermalog,” he said in response to a question posed by committee chairman Antipolo City 2nd district Rep. Romeo Acop.

Dermalog is a German company that heads a joint venture with some local firms that the LTO had contracted in 2018 to develop and manage LTMS, which the government now owns.

Mendoza said the LTO does not have sufficient IT knowhow and personnel to take in charge of the system.

Acop asked the LTO chief to scrap the Dermalog contract largely due to an adverse 2023 Commission on Audit (COA) report.

“I assure you, Mr. Chairman, that our position is in the best interest of the government. We can explain it in a closed-door session because of the presence of parties here that are litigants in a case pending in the Supreme Court [involving the contract],” Mendoza responded.

Meanwhile, Mendoza, a former party-list solon, rejected the suggestion of some lawmakers for LTO to tap Stradcom.

The LTO chief said he was new in his job, having been appointed only in July 2023. He said he would have to check the track record of Stradcom, which has earned billions from its previous engagement with LTO amid reported numerous inefficiencies in its service.

“We will have to validate their capability to walk the talk,” Mendoza said.

Prodded by committee members to comment on the issue, Department of Transportation (DOTr) Undersecretary Reinier Paul Yebra said the DOTr was interested in efficient service.

“This is a contract between LTO and its IT provider. As the mother agency and per the directive of Secretary Jaime Bautista, we want to ensure na wala pong disruption sa service sa publiko (that there is no disruption to public service),” he said.

There is a transition period during which Stradcom is required but has failed to turn over to LTO all data it had collected from the duration of its contract.

In a letter dated last May 2, Bautista reminded Stradcom president Anthony Quiambao to comply with the requirement.

He said the data submission “is crucial for a smooth transition to the new vehicle registration module and to expedite transaction processing for better service to our clients and stakeholders".

“However, due to delays in transmission and missing data in the entries submitted, there are still obstacles to the execution and implementation of the new vehicle registration module of the LTO,” Bautista said in his letter.