Last of two parts
I WROTE last week that the Land Transportation Office (LTO), under Assistant Secretary Markus Lacanilao, has reform ambitions but is still plagued with institutional failures. First, the Toll Regulatory Board’s chronic deferment of RFID enforcement clogs tollways for compliant motorists, while the LTO itself has withheld RFID stickers already paid for through registration fees. Second, the local government units’ anti-smoke belching operations duplicate and implicitly undermine the national Private Motor Vehicle Inspection Center (PMVIC) emission testing regime. The LTMS digital collapse — caused by a contractually invalid P602.9-million deal with Stradcom — paralyzed all LTO transactions nationwide.
As I said last time, “good intentions at the top of an agency are no substitute for real agency-wide reforms, and the road ahead remains pockmarked with institutional failures that Lacanilao has yet to fully confront.” Here are some more problems that Lacanilao should resolve the soonest.
Illegal modifications that slip through PMVIC
A fourth problem is the proliferation of dangerously modified vehicles on our roads. Blinding aftermarket LED light bars, protruding tow hooks that function as battering rams, and widened axle modifications that cause vehicles to occupy more than their designated lane — are clearly illegal modifications. The LTO’s own Joint Administrative Order 2014-01 prohibits excessively bright accessories such as LED light bars that can dazzle and blind other motorists, citing them as a road safety hazard.
The problem lies in enforcement at the PMVIC level. PMVICs are authorized to inspect modified vehicles, subject to the condition that modifications do not compromise structural integrity, overall safety and roadworthiness. Yet the PMVIC’s own data reveal the system’s current limits: Of the 2 million vehicles that underwent PMVIC inspection in 2024, 37.3 percent had defective headlights — a figure that includes both failing stock lights and potentially illegal light modifications — while 45.1 percent failed braking tests. The Vehicle Inspection Center Operators Association of the Philippines itself acknowledges these numbers as “early warnings that, if ignored, could result in preventable accidents.”
The deeper problem, however, is institutional. The LTO currently requires only visual and emission tests for registration renewal, not the full mechanical inspection offered by PMVICs — making the broader battery of roadworthiness tests, including light intensity and beam alignment, merely optional rather than mandatory. This means a vehicle with blinding aftermarket lights or a dangerously protruding tow bar can legally pass the minimum registration requirement. The LTO must close this gap by mandating the full PMVIC mechanical inspection for registration renewal and explicitly incorporating structural modification checks — including light compliance and protrusion assessment — into the mandatory test protocol.
Registration of a colorum van
The fifth problem is at the interface of the LTO and the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) — private vans disguised as public utility vehicles. Under Joint Administrative Order 2014-01, a vehicle is considered colorum when it operates as a public utility vehicle without authority from the LTFRB, operates outside its approved route, operates differently from its authorized category, or when its certificate of public convenience has been suspended, canceled or expired.
This is fundamentally a registration-level failure at the LTO. Private vans are registered with white plates, yet many operate as de facto public transport — collecting fares, plying fixed routes and carrying passengers for compensation — without the yellow plates, franchise documentation or safety standards required of franchised PUVs. Transport groups have complained that they are losing 30 percent of their daily income due to colorum operations, while passengers riding these vehicles have no insurance coverage and no legal accountability from the operator.
The LTO’s registration process must work in closer real-time coordination with the LTFRB. A registered private van that is subsequently apprehended as colorum should face automatic registration sanctions — not just fines and impoundment — including a bar on registration renewal until the operator demonstrates full LTFRB compliance. The current system allows colorum operators to pay fines, retrieve impounded vehicles via court order and resume illegal operations. Linking the LTO’s registration database to LTFRB’s enforcement records would close this cycle.
Unregulated e-bike fleet on public roads
The sixth problem is the fastest-growing road safety emergency in the country — uncontrolled proliferation of e-bikes and e-trikes operating on public roads without registration, insurance or licensed drivers. Lacanilao himself acknowledged the core of the problem that since e-bikes and e-trikes are not registered with the LTO, there is no way that the government will be able to enforce accountability in case of mishaps or accidents or even crimes committed using these vehicles.
The LTO announced a crackdown beginning Dec. 1, 2025, then deferred impoundment operations to Jan. 2, 2026 (in selected major roads only), to allow time for updated guidelines and a nationwide information campaign. Republic Act 11697, the Electric Vehicle Industry Development Act (Evida), explicitly exempts private-use light electric vehicles (EVs) from LTO registration, and legal experts argue that LTO administrative orders cannot override a national law. This impasse must be resolved not by memorandum circular but through legislative clarification — one that preserves the Evida’s pro-EV intent while subjecting for-hire and road-using e-bikes to a minimum safety and accountability framework.
The issues outlined here are not new, and the data documenting them are not ambiguous. What has been missing is LTO’s institutional will to resolve them. Assistant Secretary Lacanilao has the mandate and, reportedly, the intention. The suggested next step is execution — mandatory full PMVIC inspection tied to registration renewal, real-time LTO-LTFRB coordination to bar colorum operators from reregistration, a clear legislative or regulatory framework for e-bike accountability, delivery of RFID stickers already paid for under existing registration fees, and a permanent, contractually sound replacement for the LTMS.
These are not unreasonable demands, but a concrete measure of a functional transport regulatory agency.
Facebook: www.facebook.com/All.Insight.Manila.Times
Viber: (0915)4201085