LTO chief to pursue smoother, faster transaction

Despite a court injunction issued on the delivery of plastic cards used for driver's licenses, Land Transportation Office chief Vigor Mendoza on Tuesday said the agency will pursue its full digitalization in all LTO transactions.

"(That is one of) the core foundations that I want to establish since I assumed the top post of the agency in July," Mendoza said.

He added it is in line with the marching order of President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr., and "this what we are going to pursue as part of his legacy under his reform slogan 'Bagong Pilipinas' which focuses on making all government transactions smoother, faster and more comfortable for the Filipino people."

The LTO, Mendoza said, is already providing all services related to land transportation with a new online portal, called Land Transport Management System (LTMS), which integrates all LTO services in a single database and digital platform. The system is designed to allow stakeholders to connect directly to the LTMS via customized online portals.

The stakeholders have different workflows with specific requirements, e.g., biometric verification before uploading a certificate.

"In the case of the LTMS, we in the LTO do not want to delve further into the things that were not done that resulted in the glitches and missed opportunities for its full utilization," Mendoza explained.

"Instead, I have been focusing on fixing all these problems in the soonest possible time in order for us to deliver the long-overdue reliable and comfortable services not only to all our clients across the country but also to our kababayans abroad," he added.

"This is the reason why I immediately created a Technical Working Group (TWG) when I assumed the top LTO post—to iron out all these glitches by consolidating the LTMS system and the old IT system of LTO because there are some services that could not be served by the LTMS and remain under the old system," Mendoza stressed.

He explained that by consolidating these two systems, "I am confident that these would result in full utilization of a user-friendly online transaction process which is what the LTO digitalization program envisions it to be."

"Right now, the good news is that we are in the final phase of consolidating these systems and hopefully, we will be able to launch it before the end of November this year," Mendoza further explained.

"For the driver's license issuance, for instance, it Is 100 percent LTMS while the renewal of motor vehicle registration is now at 90 percent LTMS. For the newly registered units or NRUs, it was all under the old IT system but right now, it is now at 60 percent LTMS," the LTO chief said.

"There are still things to be done to make the entire IT system glitch-free, and that is the reason why we are now working double to make it available in the soonest possible time. I assure all our kababayan that we will not stop until all of these are consolidated to be fully operational, with the end goal of making all the LTO digital transactions reliable, fast, and glitch-free," Mendoza assured.