The slew of LTO fees “slaps taxes on the pandemic-hit people without basis in law nor approval from agencies and creates confusion, something which could have been avoided if the agency did not commit reckless speeding in implementing them.”

This is how Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph Recto summed up the motoring agency’s “pileup of mistakes” which now look like a “multiple car collision.”

He said the legal basis of the Private Motor Vehicle Inspection Center (PMVIC) and mandatory driving school enrolment “is murky, if not non-existent.”

“This is a case of overreach. Walang batas na explicitly saying pwedeng isapribado. Yung sa requirement na enrolment sa driving academy, kahit gumamit ka ng magnifying glass, walang provision na ganoon doon sa batas na ininvoke ng LTO,” Recto said.

He said RA 10930, which extends the validity of driver’s license, does not carry such a provision. “But this was hijacked to make it appear that said law mandates driving school enrollment.”

He said “newer and higher” LTO fees also bypassed NEDA review when the practice is that fees and charges must be reviewed by that agency. In response to the LTO comparing inspection fees in ASEAN, Recto said they should also take into account the purchasing power parity among the different countries in the region.

Recto said President Duterte “has also been kept in the dark as to these impositions, and how it would affect a people having a hard time making ends meet.”

Many of these flew under the “presidential and congressional radar” because it seems there was a deliberate move to evade, Recto said.

Recto scored the lack of testing centers which resulted in a logjam of vehicles to be tested, and “created monopolies which motorists have no choice but to go to even if they are far away. With only 138 PMVICs initially identified plus an additional 209 sites, how can we even begin to cover the 12 million motor vehicles in the country?”

“Dapat unahin sa urban centers na maraming sasakyan. Ang nangyari, kung saan maraming nangangailangan, doon kakaunti. Ibig sabihin, private bottomline ang inuna, hind public good,” Recto said.

Recto said the many fees slapped on owning and operating motor vehicles “are essentially taxes ordered by those who do not have the power to collect them. This is taxation without authorization.”

Recto said the uproar which greeted LTO’s new round of fees and fines stemmed from “the stack of exactions” which the motoring public has been made to bear.

“May excise tax ang sasakyan, may MVUC sa rehistro, dalawang buwis sa gasolina, may medical exam sa pagkuha ng lisensya, may bayad sa driving school, ngayon may upuan na sa bata, may bayad sa toll, at maraming bagong bawal na hindi alam ng driver, sa isang sistema na matindi ang traffic,” he said.

“LTO defective policies should be recalled like defective cars, to give us all time to fix them,” he said.(###)