DOTR

IN THE past month or two, the most popular (unfortunately, notoriously) department of the government is the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH). What with the raging scandal brought about by the graft-laden flood control projects discovered in Bulacan and Mindoro, and lately, in some other parts of the country including the one in Jose Abad Santos, Davao Occidental.

The flood control projects that are either very substandard, uncompleted, or even “ghost” but fully paid are now the subject of investigation by the two houses of Congress. Monitoring the progress of the probe has become the preoccupation of the Filipinos.

And only two weeks ago, the Independent Commission for Infrastructure (ICI) was formally organized through an Executive Order by the President. This Commission, like the probes in the Senate and the Lower House, is conducting its separate investigation. The findings, however, will be used to support the filing of criminal cases against those found with involvement in the greatest heists ever made on the government coffers.

But no, it is not the monopoly of the DPWH to be the “nest” of some of the most corrupt high government officials, specifically Congressmen and Senators, conniving with private persons like infrastructure project contractors.

There are other departments or their attached agencies that are harboring corrupt personnel working on and for their own greedy interest. To mention some, we have the Bureau of Customs which is under the Department of Finance (DOF); the Bureau of Internal Revenue, also under the DOF; and the Land Transportation Office (LTO) which is an agency under the Department of Transportation (DoTr) which, ironically, was previously headed by now DPWH Secretary Vince Dizon.

The former DoTr chief is now almost “swallowed” by the whirlpool that corruption has dragged the Department’s top officials into the vortex.

As to the DoTr-attached agency, the LTO, it has long been the subject of scathing criticism for its failure to produce the number of vehicle plates corresponding to the total of registered vehicles in the whole of the country.

The failure to produce the required vehicle plates dated as far back to three national administrations ago. These were those of the eras of former President Gloria Arroyo, the late former President Benigno Simeon “Noynoy Aquino III, former President Rodrigo Duterte, and now to the administration of Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr.

And each time a new top official is appointed to head the said office, commitments were made to solve the problem in the manufacture of the vehicle plates. In addition to this still unaddressed problem of producing the vehicle plates is the existence of the bureaucratic red tape in the mentioned DoTr agency. Aside from our own personal experience years back, we got the shock of our life when a brother-in-law shared his own experience only last Monday at the Davao City office of the said agency.

The guy bought a pre-owned Triumph big bike from its Cebu City distributor. The unit, however, was purchased from its Davao City dealer that closed shop shortly after the pandemic. The big bike was first purchased by a resident of Digos City in 2018 in Davao City.

Possibly frustrated for waiting for the plate to arrive for almost five years, the original owner brought the unit to Cebu City. He bought a new one but left his older Triumph motorcycle displayed at the Cebu dealer’s shop giving the latter authority to dispose of the pre-owned unit. That was when our brother-in-law bought the second hand unit with only a temporary plate on it.

He was hoping that the Cebu dealer would abide by its commitment to process the plate in Davao City. But two years passed and still no plate arrived at the Cebu City dealer’s end.

Our brother-in-law, apparently tired of waiting and afraid of getting ticket every so often when he uses the motorbike, decided to come to Davao City and follow it up himself at the LTO Davao City office. He, accompanied by our sister, went first to the LTO at the SM Matina. They were instead advised to go to the main office of the LTO near the Felcris Centrale,

After waiting for almost two hours, they were given a blue card and advised to proceed to another section where inquiries related to vehicle plates will be answered. They told us that after almost an hour of waiting, our brother-in-law’s name was called.

And woe unto them. They were told that what the office had is only the assigned number of the plate for the motorbike. The physical plate itself is not yet available. They were told that the LTO Davao is hoping the plate will be available before or in December this year. Roughly eight long years!

To assuage our brother-in-law who was already visibly frustrated and angry with the delay and the apparent bureaucratic red tape, that particular section of the agency issued an authorization to him that he can present every time he uses the Triumph motorbike and is flagged down by traffic enforcers in Cebu. The authorization, our brod-in-law disclosed to us, will be good until the physical plate arrives.

Then he was able to secure another authorization for a relative of ours to be contacted to get the plate from the LTO when this will arrive.

Our brother-n-law’s transaction with the LTO without getting the desired result consumed the whole of that Monday with most of the time spent in waiting for his name to be called and be attended to.

When he and his wife, our younger sister, came back to their hotel delayed further by the Davao traffic, they were already dead tired.

By the way, where there is so much bureaucratic red tape corruption is not far behind. And we know exactly how it is done with finesse in some government agencies, the LTO included.