The new requirement for driver’s license renewal called Comprehensive Driver’s Education or CDE (“Solon to LTO: Scrap driver’s education requirement for license renewal,” Inquirer.net, 11/2/21) is yet another one of those callous burdens imposed on citizens by the Duterte administration at this time of the pandemic.
This requirement will not only inconvenience the driving public, but also expose them to potential COVID-19 infection while they line up and congregate in cramped Land Transportation Office (LTO) offices for the mandatory seminar. Particularly for drivers of public utility vehicles who rely on their meager earnings to support their families, this requirement means time taken away from their work and even money spent for the seminar should they be forced to take it in private driving schools, since LTO offices would most likely be filled to overcapacity.
This regulatory imposition is totally unnecessary at this time and has never been an obligatory condition for license renewal. So why suddenly require it, given the history of LTO’s weak enforcement of regulations that lead to inefficient and corrupt practices, oftentimes with the connivance of some of its officials and employees? Fixers still linger around LTO offices to facilitate transactions for monetary consideration. Motor vehicle inspection as a requisite for annual vehicle registration is so spotty and perfunctory that one can only hope those defective vehicles that pass inspection will not be the cause of fatal accidents on the road.
Likewise, the required medical exam for new and renewal applicants for driver’s license is so superficial, it would not be surprising if even those with serious health conditions that make them road risks are given clearance. The gas emission test is being blatantly abused by testing centers by just certifying compliance without the full test being done. In the worst cases, criminal elements are able to register smuggled and carjacked vehicles with the LTO in cahoots with its unscrupulous personnel. Before the drug test requirement was discontinued, many suspected that accredited testing clinics were not doing real testing to save up on reagents and cash in on the considerable fees they were collecting.
It is hard to believe the LTO leadership has been unaware of all these shenanigans or that some of its employees are complicit in them. With this kind of track record, it’s almost predictable that the agency’s recent initiative will not make a dent on the driving proficiency and road discipline of our drivers. Because of government ineptness and indifference, our roads and highways have irreversibly become an open field for reckless and undisciplined drivers and a magnet for road mishaps. The proposed CDE will just be an added hardship for our already suffering people.
DONATO SOLIVEN
paraquepa@yahoo.com