The Land Transportation Office, or LTO, now under the leadership of Atty. Vigor Mendoza II, has committed to implementing innovative solutions to immediately address the piles of problems "inherited" from the previous leaderships.

Mendoza, whom Transportation Secretary Jaime J. Bautista tasked to help the agency improve its current state, expressed confidence that he could turn the LTO around and make it more efficient and effective.

He said this aligns with the Marcos administration's marching orders to digitalize and bring government services closer to the people seamlessly.

Mendoza has already begun to execute some changes, such as streamlining the driver's license application process, implementing a new online vehicle registration system, and reducing the number of fixers at LTO offices, among others.

Speaking in a recent interview on DAILY TRIBUNE's Straight Talk, Mendoza disclosed that his agency is studying cost-effective ways to produce license plates.

Presently, the LTO has a manufacturing plant with eight machines working to produce license plates, but as recently directed by Bautista, the agency is looking at outsourcing them instead of producing them.

"We make the plates ourselves, although we are studying if maybe it is high time to review whether the LTO should produce or outsource the plates. I told Secretary Bautista that in terms of efficiency, it might be less costly and faster if we outsource it," Mendoza said.

"We are thoroughly studying those options to weigh which will be less costly to the government. Thus, finally, we could resolve all the backlogs," he added.

Million plates a month

Mendoza added that the agency's plate-making plant could produce a million monthly plates to replace all the backlogs — from the old green plates to the new white ones. He said before the end of November, the license plate backlog will hopefully be fully addressed.

With production in full swing, a motorist with a newly acquired four-wheel vehicle can claim his license plates within 10 days.

In the meantime, new motorcycle owners can now get their plates immediately. This significantly improved from the previous year when motorists took years to get their plates.

To recall, in March, ex-LTO chief Jay Art Tugade issued a memo suspending the production of license plates due to a shortage of materials.

Online portal needs full utilization

Mendoza said the LTO is also working on finally utilizing the Land Transportation Management System, or LTMS, a P3.14-billion portal created to address Filipinos' motoring concerns.

He lamented that the underutilization of the online portal, which he described as just one of the many inherited problems of the agency, was a misuse of government funds.

"The system design is incomplete, and you know that as much as possible, we want to be fully digital as instructed by the President. We want motorists to be able to apply for a license and register their vehicles through that platform," Mendoza said.

"We supposedly have all the facilities. There will be no need to go to LTO offices as it will also address the issues of fixers. However, we cannot do all these until we fully resolve the website's functionalities," he said, adding that the LTO would need the developers to provide them with some missing source and application codes.

The LTMS was jointly developed by German technology firm Dermalog and its local partners, Holy Family Printing Corp., Microgenesis, and Verzontal Builders Inc. The project went through competitive bidding in May 2018.

The LTO's online portal is a one-stop shop that will integrate all LTO services in a single contactless database system and digital platform.

"We are waiting for their reply. I have been open since my first day in office, and I've been very open to them. There is a problem, let us talk about it. However, they have not replied to my letters on the source code and application code issue. We have to protect the government's interest, and the government's interest is to get the source and application codes so we can do the enhancements ourselves," Mendoza said.

According to the new LTO chief, hiring another third-party team to resolve the LTMS issues might cost the government at least another billion pesos.

Mendoza asked why the government does not just find another software developer, saying: "We already paid for the contract."

"If we do it, maybe they will spend another billion just to complete everything, so the government will save a lot if we do it ourselves. We have DICT with us, and LTO is also hiring technical people for us to be able to do it ourselves. So, we can do it, we don't need foreigners to teach us."