Car registration and renewal in the country might be stricter soon, depending on how the Land Transportation Office, or LTO, will recalibrate its policies, to prevent anomalous car enrollment in its system.

This was after documents relating to an internal probe conducted by the LTO-National Capital Region confirmed that the two smuggled Bugatti Chiron sports cars, which made buzz across social media, were indeed registered.

The controversial cars were registered on the old LTO system operated by Stradcom Corp., which had been issued a request to submit an audit trail report to determine the LTO NCR personnel involved in the processing of the registration of the two imported vehicles.

Notably, the LTO allowed the parallel operation of an old system despite the procurement and delivery of the Land Transportation Management System, or LTMS, in August 2019, which was supposed to streamline and upgrade vehicle registrations and other related services.

“In light of the recent concerns and identified issues, this Office strongly recommends a comprehensive review of the current vehicle registration policies and procedures, especially Administrative Order No. AVT-2014 -023 dated January 14, 2014, and other procedures related to the registration and renewal of motor vehicles,” the LTO report recommended.

The report pointed out that the recent uncovering of the anomalous registration of smuggled luxury vehicles raised the need for a comprehensive review of the LTO’s registration process.

Based on the vehicle’s registration papers, the import duties paid for each imported Bugatti Chiron was over P24.787 million as detailed in their Certificate of Payment, or CP, issued to Frebel by the Bureau of Customs.

The CP is a requisite documentary submission for the registration of imported vehicles with the LTO. The CP is issued by the BOC.

The joint venture group led by Dermalog, along with Holy Family Printing Corp. and Microgenesis JV, issued a statement earlier clarifying that the two viral Bugatti sports cars were not registered at the LTMS due to its security features.

The LTMS is a one-stop shop that integrates all Land Transportation Office services in a single contactless database system and digital platform. The project went through a competitive bidding process in May 2018.

Among others, the LTMS offers a complete service offering in motor vehicle transactions—from buying a new motor vehicle and renewing your motor vehicle registration to performing a miscellaneous transaction.