EDITORIAL- Stalemate

By next month, driver’s licenses in Metro Manila will be valid for five years upon renewal instead of three, as ordered by President Duterte. That’s the good news. Now if the administration could actually start releasing the license cards, it would be even better. But the Land Transportation Office still cannot say when the contract for the cards can be cleared of procurement issues and the license cards released.

The LTO is also reportedly hoping to start releasing an initial 400,000 vehicle license plates as early as November. But then the LTO has been hoping for this since the original deadline a few years ago. The P3.8-billion contract with supplier Power Plates Development Concepts Inc. / J. Knieriem BV Goes or PPI-JKG has been in limbo since the Commission on Audit invalidated it, also over procurement issues. The Supreme Court also stopped the release of the plates after the Bureau of Customs confiscated a shipment and “donated” the items to the LTO for release to motorists.

This can qualify as a world record for the longest wait for driver’s license cards and license plates. How long will it take to resolve this stalemate? The slow resolution of an issue that affects millions of people is yet another manifestation of the weakness of the regulatory framework and inefficiency of the justice system in this country.

People are counting on the Duterte administration to quickly resolve this mess, and not just through the release of provisional license plates and slips of paper as driver’s license. Following up with a government agency the release of items one has already paid for can be a royal pain. The resolution of this problem should include measures to ensure that the public will not be held hostage again to structural weaknesses and the competing interests of rival groups.