LETTERS FROM THE AGNO

March Fianza
A driver’s license story

In 2002, I accompanied musician-composer Jessie “Djutay” Soluta to the Land Transportation Office here in Baguio to get a driver license. He was issued one that would expire by 2005.

As a musician, he traveled around the country, reaching as far as Kalinga-Apayao in the north and the ethnic provinces in Luzon, Mindanao and the Visayan Islands to gain knowledge of their musical instruments.

Sometime around 2003, Jessie decided to take a break from touring around and be with the wife and kids in Dumaguete City . The good wife teaches at Silliman University . Three years passed and so there was a need to renew his license. Otherwise, driving his Volkswagen Beetle could be edgy and uptight.

Since he was in Dumaguete, Jesse renewed his license at the local LTO station there and was issued a driver license for 2005 to 2008. Some of the more important details printed on the renewed license were: SOLUTA, JESSIE HUCALLA; the characters G02 were written under the letters AGY; license number G02 94 037731; expires 2008-12-02.

In 2007, the kids chose to enroll at the UP in Los Banos, so Jessie had to be by their side. On December 02, 2008 his license “expired.” For convenience, he decided to come up to Baguio for a visit last week and have his “expired” driver license renewed at the same time.

But what a surprise he got when Alvin, the man behind the computer in Baguio informed him that the 2005-2008 license that he wanted to renew was not entered or recorded with the LTO Central Office – so that there was nothing to renew in the first place.

It was at that moment that Jessie found out that all the time he has been driving with an expired license in Dumaguete, Laguna and Manila from 2005 to 2008. Of course, this was not his fault because all the while he knew that he had a valid driver license.

The poor fellow was still lucky for not running into any traffic violation. If ever, he could have been fined or even imprisoned for a “crime” he was actually committing but did not know all along, everytime he was behind the wheel.

Asking for some advice from Mr. Marvin Flores, head of the LTO Baguio Licensing Center after relating to him the case, Jessie was told to get in touch with the LTO Dumaguete office which he did through his wife.

The next morning of the second day of his ordeal, Jessie received good news from his wife that LTO Dumaguete had already entered his license in the records. We hurried back to the LTO Baguio office to check, only to find out that the “good news” was bad news after all.

We came to know that yes, Jessie’s license was entered in the records of LTO Dumaguete only that morning, as this was what was shown to his wife by whoever “encoded” the license as proof that it was really recorded. But his license, like all the rest, had to be reflected in the records of the LTO Central Office in Manila , which was not.

We talked about Jessie’s case while we waited for any update from Dumaguete. Some people at the LTO Baguio office even alleged that Jessie’s payment may have been pocketed after he got his license. That maybe the reason why his license was not entered in the records as doing so would result to an unbalanced accounting of funds.

“Baka naman sa labas ng LTO office ang pinagkunan mo ng licensya,” one guy tried to guess. But Jessie contradicted that by saying he “paid the required fees, got his photo taken in the LTO office and received the ID after signing for it.”

Although if it was true that he may have been duped by “fixers” or LTO personnel “assistants” that hang around LTO offices, then that is something that the Dumaguete office must stamp out.

Others said that maybe the LTO Dumaguete office was not yet computerized in 2005 when Jessie was issued his license there. But computerized or not, it was the responsibility of the licensing center to have every issued license entered and recorded with the LTO Central Licensing Office if that was what the government procedure required.

LTO people in Baguio also advised Jessie to forget about his 2005 to 2008 driver license, instead take another examination and pay the penalties that would cover fines from 2005 up to 2008.

Despite the unnecessary distress that Jessie very unfortunately suffered, he did not lose hope and called again the LTO Dumaguete office. On the third day, the person on the other end of the line said they now have entered his license with Central Office.

Still, his name did not appear in the central computer record when Jessie inquired with the LTO Baguio office. It was now clear to him that he was given the run-around by whoever were involved with the licensing center in Dumaguete.

To prove that he was issued a legitimate license, Jessie was asked to get from Dumaguete a print-out of the “abstract of collection” where his name and license number and corresponding payment appeared.

If this proof of payment is not made available or if Jessie’s name will not appear in the document, then there must be something wrong in the recording process that is being followed by the Dumaguete LTO licensing station.

Is this an exceptional case or is this widespread in all LTO licensing offices in the country? I think we have hundreds of unfortunate Jessies in the country who become innocent victims of dishonest government men.

I am quite sure that there is something that the LTO personnel in the country know that DOTC Secretary Leandro Mendoza does not know – or does not want to know.

By the way, kumusta and regards to my provincemate Atty. Joel Obar who chose to reside, work and help the people of Dumaguete. I heard he is doing fine in his field. – marchfianza777@yahoo.com