LTO head vows full digital shift

Despite a court order stopping the delivery of plastic cards for use in the manufacture of driver's licenses, Land Transportation Office chief Vigor Mendoza said the agency will pursue its full digitalization program.

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

He said digitalization complies with the marching order of President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr.

"This is 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 Filipinos."

The LTO, Mendoza added, is already providing all services related to land transportation with a new online portal, the so-called Land Transport Management System, or LTMS, that integrates 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, such as 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 soonest for us to deliver the long-overdue reliable and comfortable services not only to all our clients across the country but also our kababayans abroad," he added.

Technical review ongoing

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

By consolidating these two systems, he explained, "I am confident that this would result in the 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 said.