THE Land Transportation Office (LTO) lost millions of pesos in revenues after a day-long nationwide glitch in its foreign-made information technology (IT) platform Land Transportation Management System (LTMS) last October 30.
The glitch, which paralyzed LTO operations and burdened thousands of transacting motorists and logistic firms connected to the agency, was caused by an intentional fiber cut affecting the Data Center’s internet line at the LTO’s central office in Quezon City.
The recent outage highlighted the LTMS’s unreliability which has been persistently affecting LTO’s operations since its inception in 2019.
Pockets of technical glitches in the system affected not only the agency’s revenues but also the time, energy, resources, and patience of millions of LTO clients who were forced to go home after scheduling a leave of absence for their driver’s license and motor vehicle registration transactions.
The P3.14 billion LTMS project aimed at digitalizing LTO’s core functions and processes was awarded to a Joint Venture (JV) led by German firm Dermalog in May 2018.
Lawmakers have been calling out the government for its inaction on the alleged contract breaches committed by Dermalog and its inability to fix the operational glitches, citing the audit findings of the Commission on Audit (COA) which has repeatedly flagged the multiple contract violations of the German firm.
According to a 2023 COA report, Dermalog failed to provide the required three redundant internet connections, opting instead for a single connection. This left the LTMS vulnerable to service disruptions such as the recent fiber cut, which brought LTO transactions to a halt and resulted in considerable revenue losses.
Further complicating matters, Dermalog’s maintenance contract expired last October 10, The contract required Dermalog to transfer full operational control of the Data Center to LTO personnel, including comprehensive training, 12 months before contract expiration.
The LTO made more than 10 demand letters requesting the turnover, all of which went unaddressed. This prevented the LTO from assuming independent control over its critical Data Center infrastructure.
An ongoing Ombudsman case has revealed that Dermalog retains remote access to sensitive LTO databases containing personal information on millions of Filipinos, raising national security concerns.
Under the terms of the contract, control over this data should reside exclusively with the LTO. Legal and data privacy experts argue that Dermalog’s continued remote access, particularly after contract expiration, poses a serious risk to national data sovereignty and public trust.
A group of concerned citizens has petitioned the Supreme Court (SC) to stop the LTMS contract due to its several operational and legal issues. The SC has yet to decide on the petition. – Rolly Salvador
