‘LTO earnings can’t be used for plates, licenses’

MANILA, Philippines — The Land Transportation Office (LTO)’s daily revenue collections cannot be used in the production of driver’s licenses and plates, which have budget allocations from Congress, an official said over the weekend.

LTO finance division chief Marivic Lopez said the agency remits its daily income to the Bureau of the Treasury.

“The LTO is not authorized to retain funds collected from the day-to-day operations. The LTO’s funding comes from the General Appropriations Act and not from its daily collections,” Lopez said.

Lopez issued the statement after Deputy Speaker and Batangas 6th district Rep. Ralph Recto said the LTO may tap its daily collections to produce 5.2 million driver’s license cards.

According to Lopez, Congress has allocated funding for the procurement of raw materials needed for driver’s license cards and plates.

LTO chief Jose Art Tugade has blamed the shortage in the supply of plastic driver’s license cards to an order issued by the Department of Transportation in January, which requires bidding of more than P50 million worth of supplies to be undertaken by the DOTr central office.