Land Transportation Office chief, Assistant Secretary Atty. Vigor D. Mendoza II, on Tuesday said he had met with officials of the Philippine Coast Guard and discussed the finalization of the strategic plans in the strict implementation of the “No Registration, No Travel” policy.

The participation of the PCG Mendoza said is in the is in line with the directive of Transportation Secretary Jaime J. Bautista.

During the meeting, Mendoza also brought up the complaints and concerns of legitimate PUV operators and drivers about the hardheaded drivers and operators of colorum vehicles that continue to ply on their routes.

Mendoza has been meeting with various transport groups to get their support and cooperation in both the anti-colorum and “No Registration, No Travel” policy, the recent was the courtesy visit of Malbalesamon JODA headed by Eduardo Resuello who sought assistance from the LTO over the concerns and challenges faced by legitimate jeepney operators, with particular emphasis on the issue of combating colorum vehicles.

“We understand these concerns and this is the reason why we have been strengthening our coordination and interoperability with the Coast Guard and other law enforcement agencies against these colorum vehicles,” Mendoza said.

Based on the complaints of the major transport groups, colorum drivers and operators steal around 30 percent of their daily income.

Mendoza said the anti-colorum drive will be implemented along with the “No Registration, No Travel” policy.

So far, Mendoza said he is satisfied with the information drive and law enforcement operations related to “No Registration, No Travel” policy which resulted in the registration of around 200,000 motor vehicles across the country this month.

He lauded all Regional Directors, District Office heads and personnel of the agency for going out of their way to further improve the information drive to encourage owners of delinquent motor vehicles to renew their expired registration.

“I am personally monitoring both our law enforcement operations and the information drive and I commend our officials and personnel for this positive result. The figures are encouraging and I am confident that more delinquent motor vehicles will be registered in the coming days,”Mendoza said.

“Malaki pa ang hahabulin namin sa LTO but with the hard work, strategic planning and implementation and the dedication for road safety of all our personnel, I am confident that we will finally reach our target,” he added.

Based on the LTO data, there are more than 24 million motor vehicles with expired registration, most of them are motorcycles. The 24 million delinquent motor vehicles represent around 65 percent of the total number of motor vehicles in the country.

Citing the figure from 1 to 23 January, Mendoza said a total of 182,458 motorcycles and motor vehicles were registered across the country.

Of the figure, a total of 48,714 of them are motor vehicles while a total of 133,744 of them are motorcycles.

The LTO-NCR registered the most number of registration of delinquent motor vehicles with 32,370, followed by LTO-Region VII with 22,729; LTO-Region III with 22,133; and LTO-Region IV-A with 18,428.

Mendoza disclosed that a total of 1,966 motor vehicles were already impounded from 1 to 23 January, with 1,735 of them being motorcycles while 231 were motor vehicles.

“Hanga’t maari ay ayaw nating manghuli dahil ito ay nangangahulugan ng mas matinding abala sa mga motorista, kasama na diyan ang mataas na penalty,” Mendoza said.

“But we will have no other option but to conduct enforcement if this is the way to compel all the remaining delinquent motor vehicles to comply with the obligation that comes with vehicle ownership. Let me inform them na pinapalawak na namin ang ang aming mga impounding areas specifically for this purpose,” he added.