The Cordillera office of the Land Transportation Office (LTO-CAR) will be implementing the newly established electronic temporary operator’s permit (e-TOP) for violators of the pertinent provisions of Republic Act (RA) 4136 or the Land Transportation Code of the Philippines in line with the overall digitalization program of the agency.
LTO-CAR regional director Francis Ray Almora disclosed that five personnel of the agency are now undergoing the necessary training in the central office for the eventual roll out of the e-TOP in the region to help in significantly reducing manual intervention in the enforcement of land transportation laws.
He said that apprehended motorists can opt to immediately settle their fines either through online payment or through debit or credit cards where the paid fines will be immediately reflected in the system.
The LTO-CAR official claimed that apprehended motorists can also contest their violation where the enforcer can click the contested bottom of the hand-held device being used for the implementation of the e-TOP and that the motorists are given five days to contest their violation in writing.
According to him, if the apprehended motorists are not able to contest their violations within the 5-day period, this will be considered as an admitted violation where they will be required to pay the prescribed fine before the alarm on their license will be lifted.
Almora added that if the motorists will be apprehended for the second time where the first violation had not been settled, the driver’s license of the motorists will be suspended for a period of 6 months.
Moreover, he explained that if the motorists will be apprehended for the 3rd time with unsettled earlier violations, their driver’s licenses will be eventually revoked making it difficult for them to secure these.
Almora emphasized that the hand-held device used by the enforcers can also detect the status of registration of motor vehicles and the driver’s license of motorists thus unregistered motor vehicles and erring drivers can be detected anywhere in the country.
He warned erring motorists that there is no way by which they will be able to evade being apprehended for their violations with the implementation of the e-TOP because enforcers are trained for the said purpose to ensure their fines accrue to the coffers of the government and help address various issues and concerns being raised against LTO personnel.
Almora revealed that the various activated handheld devices for the implementation of the agency’s digitalization program which had been one of the major innovations of previous officials will be done as soon as there will be trained personnel who will be using them.
The LTO digitalization program has been enshrined in the Land Transportation Management Information System (LTMS) that seeks to significantly improve the various services offered by the agency for the motorists and to ensure the speedy transactions in the various offices in the different parts of the country.