THE Land Transportation Office will no longer require vehicle owners to have a third-party liability (TPL) insurance coverage if they already have a “comprehensive” insurance coverage when renewing their vehicle registration.
Transportation Secretary Jaime Bautista assured this as the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee conducted a hearing on the issues hounding the LTO, which is under the direct supervision of the DOTr.
Sen. Raffy Tulfo, who virtually attended the hearing, said requiring vehicle owners to secure TPL insurance while renewing their vehicle registration even if they already have comprehensive insurance is an added burden to owners.
“In my case, my vehicles already have comprehensive insurance coverage but still LTO requires me to buy a TPL,” Tulfo said.
He said TPL insurance, which usually costs from P700 to P1,500, has been the source of “extra” income of a number of LTO employees, who refer vehicle owners to an insurance company in exchange for “commissions.”
Tulfo said comprehensive insurance also has TPL coverage and thus is redundant.
In response, Bautista said: “Basta may (As long as you have) comprehensive insurance coverage that also includes TPL. So, hindi na kailangan ng (So, there is no need for a) separate TPL insurance…We will implement that soon.”
Tulfo also asked Bautista if the DOTr can do away with medical examinations being administered by “private clinics” that form part of the requirements for getting a student’s license permit and for renewing driver’s licenses.
He said private clinics do not have professionals who conduct the medical examination, which includes eyesight and hearing tests. The medical test costs around P500.
Bautista said they are now studying the possibility of the LTO accepting medical certificates from government hospitals which are free of charge so the applicant can save money.
The Senate Blue Ribbon Committee headed by Sen. Francis Tolentino conducted its first day of hearing on the issues involving the LTO, specifically undue payment given by the agency to the joint venture of Dermalog Identification Systems, Holy Family Printing Corp., and Microgenesis and Verzontal Builder for the LTO’s Road Transportation and Infrastructure System information technology project.
Officials of the joint venture were not present during the hearing, which prompted Senate minority leader Aquilino Pimentel III to urge the committee to issue subpoenas to compel them to attend the next scheduled hearing which has yet to be announced.
Pimentel said the implementation of the project has been delayed for at least three years now and yet the government has already made partial payments to the joint venture.
Bautista said the government paid the joint venture since it is stated in the contract that the government should partially pay even if the project is unfinished.
Senators asked for a copy of the contract between LTO and the joint venture to which the DOTr obliged. It will be reviewed by the senators.
Bautista said the project was conceptualized way back in 2010 and approved by the NEDA Board in March 2012, while the Budget Department issued a Multi-Year Contracting Authority (MYCA) in December 2012 amounting to P10.8 billion covering the years 2013 to 2022.
He said the project was split into two phases — the LTO Frontline Services with an approved budget of P3.14 billion, and the LTO Internal Operations with an approved budget of P2.63 billion.
He said the total amount of funds downloaded from the DOTr to the LTO is P5.778 billion which was sourced from the 2015 national budget.
He said the total payment made by LTO was P2.311 out of the P3.14 billion as of June 2022 for the first phase of the project.
