The House Committee on Transportation called out certain medical clinics accredited by the Land Transportation Office (LTO) for charging excessive and unexplained miscellaneous fees to driver's license applicants.

During a hearing last March 11, committee chairperson and Quezon City 3rd district Rep. Franz Pumaren, revealed that driver’s license applicants were being charged approximately P140 in miscellaneous fees and a P60 computer fee, on top of the P300 medical examination fee.

According to Pumaren, these clinics failed to explain what these additional amounts cover when asked by his team.

“They said these miscellaneous fees are part of the IT (information technology) charges. This practice is widespread among medical clinics. We are holding this hearing to ensure the public is not burdened by excess expenses, such as convenience, computer, and miscellaneous fees,” said the Metro Manila lawmaker.

It can be recalled, however, that during a March 7, 2024 hearing of the transportation panel, Stradcom Corporation--the local IT proponent of the LTO-IT System--declared that none of the so-called fees were paid to it, and that this has been the case for several years.

Pumaren also questioned the LTO’s accreditation of multiple medical IT providers despite already having two IT service providers: Stradcom and the foreign company Dermalog Identification Systems GmbH, which developed the Land Transportation Management System (LTMS).

Former LTO chief Edgar Galvante, under the previous administration, required the electronic submission of medical examination results in 2019, and that medical clinics were allowed to choose their preferred medical IT provider, for as long as these were accredited by the agency.

One of the six accredited medical IT providers present during the hearing was Edgecomm Total Solutions, Inc. (Edgecomm), which claimed to have introduced computerized medical examinations in LTO in 2012. The company added that its LTO accreditation was renewable annually.

However, Pumaren argued that Edgecomm’s role already appears redundant.

“My point is that Edgecomm seems like a middleman, since it also sends medical results to Stradcom. In fact, Stradcom claims it can provide the same services,” the committee chairman said.

The LTO admitted it does not monitor the pricing of miscellaneous fees charged by medical clinics but clarified that payments from additional fees do not go to the government.

LTO Executive Director Martin Ontog said the agency will review all accreditations to cut unnecessary processes and fees for the benefit of the motoring public.