• Car plates and stickers for brand-new cars issued within seven days
• Registration of old cars, complete with car plates and stickers, done within two hours
• New driver’s license processed within four hours
• Old driver’s licenses renewed within 60 minutes

These are the “performance pledges” the Land Transportation Office (LTO) has attached to its request for a P1.97 billion budget for 2016, and a Senate leader is asking if the agency can deliver on its promises.

“Believe it or not, these are actually the same performance targets the LTO has set for itself this year,” Senate President Pro-Tempore Ralph G. Recto said.

“So we should ask them if they are now delivering plates for brand-new cars within a week, and what gives them the confidence to renew the same promise of processing speed for next year,” Recto said.

While he promised to raise the issue of “LTO deliverables” with Department of Transportation and Communication (DOTC) officials when the agency’s budget request is tackled by the Senate, Recto said his focus “will be on the problems the LTO is facing that cause delays in the issuance of car plates.”

“Kulang ba kayo sa tao o sa kagamitan o sa pondo? At kung natukoy na ang mga problema, ano ang solusyon?” he asked.

“Like a car being brought to them for service, I would like the LTO guys to act like mechanics and give us the rundown of problems, meaning a complete diagnostics report, and how they will fix the problem, and like a good casa, tell us when it will be fixed,” Recto said.

“Kasi pagdating sa paghihintay ng plaka at lisensya, walang forevermore. Baka magkaanak na si Aldub, wala pa ring lisensya,” Recto quipped.

For 2016, the LTO is asking for a P1.09 billion budget.

The agency will also receive P801.8 million from Road Users Tax collections and P82.8 million from “seat belt fines,” raising its operating budget to P1.97 billion.

In exchange for this allocation, it spelled out in the national budget its major final outputs (MFOs) or benchmarks of service it will accomplish.

For 2016, LTO’s MFOs include the registration of 8,331,490 motor vehicles (MV) and the issuance of 5,247,060 driver’s licenses and permits.

For vehicle registration, it vowed that “90 percent of new registrations completed with MV plates and stickers within seven days and 90 percent of renewals of registration completed with MV plates and stickers within two hours.”

On driver licensing, LTO made the commitment that “90 percent of new applications for driver’s license acted upon within four hours of receipt of compliant applications and 90 percent of applications for renewal of driver’s licenses acted upon within one hour of receipt of compliant applications.”

Recto noted that the “wording of the promissory note on the processing of driver’s license is somewhat vague.”

“What do you mean by ‘acted upon’? Can we replace with it a clearer language like ‘a driver’s license shall be issued within one hour‘?” Recto asked.

Recto said LTO’s budget and the taxes it will collect are enough “to end the anomaly of NPA – or No Plate Available – cars running on our roads.”

This year, the LTO is forecasted to collect P12.94 billion in Motor Vehicle User’s Charge. This is projected to increase to P14.49 billion next year.