LAND Transportation Office chief Jose Art Tugade yesterday announced his resignation over differences with Department of Transportation (DOTr) Secretary Jaime Bautista, adding this will give the latter a “free hand to choose who he can work best with.”
Tugade, in a statement released by the Presidential Communications Office (PCO), said he will continue to root for the success of the LTO support even as a private citizen.
“Even as DOTR and LTO both aim to succeed in serving the public, our methods to achieve that success differ. For this reason, I am stepping down, so Secretary Jimmy Bautista will have the free hand to choose who he can work best with. I will continue to root for the LTO’s success even as a private citizen, because I will always share in Secretary Bautista’s belief that our offices can be a formidable force for good in our country,” he said.
Tugade, son of former Transportation Secretary Artuto Tugade, was appointed LTO chief in November last year.
He was initially named as acting general manager of the Manila International Airport Authority (MIAA).
The younger Tugade leaves the LTO at a time when the agency is facing a shortage of plastic cards for driver’s licenses.
In a statement, Bautista said: “We extend our appreciation to Assistant Secretary Jose Arturo Tugade for his 7-month stint as Assistant Secretary of the Land Transportation Office. His pursuit of service innovations at LTO benefited the public, for which this office is grateful.”
“We will submit to the Office of the President our recommendation of an LTO chief who can display the same fervor while aligning efforts to the mission of this Department.”
While serving as the LTO chief, Tugade issued several rules, including the three-year validity for registration of all new motorcycles in the country, the scrapping of periodic medical examination requirements for holders of driver’s licenses with either 5-year or 10-year validity, and also set the maximum prescribed rates for theoretical driving courses and practical driving courses nationwide. — With Myla Iglesias
