Land Transportation Office (Chief Assistant Secretary Atty. Vigor D. Mendoza II on Sunday said he has ordered the agency's legal department to strengthen coordination with Facebook Philippines in taking down accounts that offer online assistance for driver's license and motor vehicle registration transactions.

Mendoza said he already tasked all Regional Directors and District Heads to monitor Facebook and other social media platforms for groups or individuals that offer online assistance for all LTO transactions.

"We will also tap all our employees to immediately report to their district heads any accounts that offers LTO online assistance. Kami ay isang pamilya at obligasyon ng bawat isa sa amin na protektahan ang pangalan ng aming ahensya," Mendoza said.

"We are also planning to give incentives to LTO employees whose information could lead to the arrest of these online scammers and take down their social media accounts," he added.

Mendoza explained that the LTO has already complied with the directive of Department of Transportation Secretary Jaime Bautista to digitalize all the transactions in the agency as part of the improvement of services to the Filipino people.

Student permits, driver's license applications, and motor vehicle registrations and renewals can now be done online through the Land Transportation Management System.

Mendoza pushed for the consolidation of the two IT systems in the LTO to make all transactions in the agency comfortable and glitch-free.

Based on monitoring on the ground, Mendoza said the digital shift of all LTO transactions resulted in a significant decrease in the intervention of fixers in all LTO offices across the country.

"This digital shift has improved our anti-corruption measures in the agency because it results in less human intervention, particularly those involving fixers," said Mendoza.

"May mangilan-ngilan pa din na patuloy sa pambubudol ng ating mga kababayan sa pamamagitan ng social media at ito ang tinututukan namin ngayon. Hindi ako papayag na sisirain ng mga ito ang mga repormang naisakatuparan na natin sa LTO," he added.

The LTO Chief also asked netizens to help the LTO in running after online scammers.

"Malaki ang naitutulong ng ating mga netizens sa mabilis nating aksyon sa mga abusado sa kalsada, kami po sa LTO ay umaasa na magiging masigasig din ang ating mga netizens laban sa mga online scammers na ito dahil kapag hindi ito nasugpo, baka ang inyong mga kaibigan at kapamilya ang mabiktima ng mga kawatang ito," said Mendoza.