Newly-appointed Land Transportation Office chief Atty. Jose Art Tugade, son of former Transportation chief Arthur P. Tugade, has vowed to intensify road safety and eradicate corruption as his top priorities by digitizing the agency.

"We are partners for progress, advocates of safety, and must be champions of excellence and efficiency. Foremost, we need to remember that we are in the service industry. Hence, we need to focus and improve the quality of our customer service to the public," Tugade said on Monday following his oathtaking.

In a separate press statement, Transportation Secretary Jaime Bautista said he "has (concluded) that he is best suited for the very challenging job in the LTO."

"With his experience in management and litigation, I believe that he will make a difference in the LTO with the many problems and controversies being faced by the agency," Bautista said.

Tugade graduated with a Bachelor of Law from San Beda College Manila in 2010.

He spent his undergraduate years at the same school where he graduated as valedictorian with a Bachelor of Arts and Science in Business Management and Entrepreneurship in 2003.

Aside from improving the quality of service delivery and promoting road safety, Tugade has committed to stamping out corruption within the LTO ranks. He pointed out that one way to address this is to limit human intervention in various agency transactions through digitalization.

"In order to address corruption, we will take steps to improve transparency and reduce, if not eliminate, human intervention. To this end, we shall exert all efforts to digitalize our agency," the new LTO chief emphasized.

"What we can assure everyone is that I am an obedient soldier. I will perform and execute tasks assigned to me with passion and efficiency. I will work closely with Transportation Secretary Jaime Bautista to ensure that the direction and marching order of the President of further developing transportation will be delivered," Tugade said.