People, in general, are willing to pay what they can afford for good service delivery. What is important to them is that service is delivered efficiently. And this can be in any area of private or public service: water or electricity, internet, public transportation and mass transit, public housing, permitting and inspection, etc.
The issue is that locally, service efficiency is always cyclical and never consistent. In some way, the cycles follow the changes in administration. Take the case of driving licenses and motor vehicle license plates. Four administrations ago, we seemed to have resolved supply issues. Drivers and car buyers were getting licenses and plates on time.
Since then, demand has increased and supply, perhaps for lack of long-term planning, ended up playing catch-up. Since 2015, or three administrations ago, the backlog has grown to more than 1.8 million pairs of license plates. That is more than 1.8 million motor vehicles on our roads nationwide still without proper and updated legal identification.
As the Philippine Star reported, quoting the 2022 annual audit report of the Commission on Audit (CoA) on the Department of Transportation (DoTr), “a total of 1.797 million pairs of license plates worth P808.702 million, paid by registered car owners since 2015, remain undelivered to them by the Land Transportation Office (LTO).”
“Of the remaining 2,561,629 pairs of motor vehicle (MV) replacement plates [as of 2021] paid by car owners upon renewal of registration of their vehicles, only 764,514 pairs were actually produced by the LTO, an attached agency of the DoTr, as of Dec. 31, 2022,” the Star quoted the CoA report. And of the more than 700,000 pairs of plates produced by LTO, more than 250,000 were still with its Plate Making Plant for packaging.
Worse, reported the Star, CoA said that despite the huge backlog, the plant had been instructed by the Plate Unit to temporarily stop the production of motor vehicle replacement plates mainly due to insufficient blank plates to cover the production of both replacement plates and plates for newly registered vehicles for 2023.” One issue is that blank plates delivered by the supplier could not be used for technical reasons.
And then there are funding issues. LTO made motorcycle plates only for the 2018-2022 backlog, the Star reported, citing state auditors. “Based on the gathered information, the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) has released funds only for the 2018 to 2022 requirement for the motorcycle backlogs, hence, the production of the motorcycle backlogs from calendar year 2017 and below was left behind due to lack of funds,” the Star quoted the CoA report.
From all indications, this is not just an issue with the LTO supplier, or the way LTO produces or contracts out the manufacture of plates. This is also a national budget issue, and to a large extent, a fund management issue covering fees collected from the public and turned over by LTO to the National Government since 2015.
As the Star reported, CoA already advised LTO to ask the Budget department “to immediately release the funds needed for the production of replacement plates and motorcycle backlogs since the payment have been received and collected by LTO from the registrants.” Imagine having paid for a plate in 2015 or 2016 or 2017, with the public’s money going to the government, and LTO still has nothing to show for it? What happened to the money?
And it seems like nobody in the government — or previous governments — since 2015 has been held accountable for this mess. The mismanagement of the issue borders on criminal already. And while actual damage to motorists may have been mitigated by remedial measures — they have been allowed to continue using their vehicles — the fact remains that many vehicle owners have been out of pocket since 2015. They paid the LTO — the government — and got nothing in return.
Of course, this scandalous mess will not be complete without rumors and whispers of contractors or suppliers being favored by certain officials, or that supply contract bidding is being rigged to favor one party or the other. Fact is, under any administration, and without any government supply contract, there will always be talk of people making money.
Truth be told, I am more concerned with service delivery than who makes money from it. The worse cut is that people have already paid for the product or the service, as early as eight years ago, and yet there does not seem to be any sense of urgency in the three administrations to ensure that people, taxpayers and negligent officials both, get what they deserve.
Senator Grace Poe told the press LTO should have a “catch-up plan” to address the backlog. She also said “the absence of vehicle plate poses security risks. It is also shortchanging motorists who have shelled out money for the plates.” Of course, I agree with the good senator, and thank her for her concern. But this issue goes beyond a catch-up plan.
Moreover, while the shortage of plates poses “security risks” as she noted, the real issue is how the government, and not just LTO, is “shortchanging” motorists. LTO, DoTr, the Budget department and CoA should all work together to resolve this matter once and for all. The President should perhaps consider appointing someone — not the DoTr secretary — to take the lead and see this through.
More than that, he should set a reasonable deadline for the Executive department to resolve this eight-year-old problem. And, failing to fix the problem within that period, heads should roll and cases should be filed against erring and negligent officials and suppliers. This problem is now on the third administration. In fairness to all concerned, it should not go beyond this government.
Marvin Tort is a former managing editor of BusinessWorld, and a former chairman of the Philippine Press Council