Vulture in LTO Alabang

This is about my visit to the Land Transportation Office (LTO) in

Alabang, Muntinlupa, in the morning of Aug. 30, 2013, where I personally met with the branch’s chief, Adriana Cabeliza, and reported the following:

Some time in May of this year my daughter and I went to LTO-Alabang to renew our respective driver’s licenses. While I was able to renew mine, as my birthday falls that month, my daughter couldn’t as her birthday is in September, some four months away at the time. She was told it was too early to renew her license. She wanted to get her license because she was scheduled to leave for Canada.

Last Aug. 29, I went to branch chief Cabeliza’s office to find out if and how I could get my daughter’s license. I was able to talk with an employee—who entertained me inside the office although it was only 7:30 a.m.—and I asked him if I could get my daughter’s license. I showed him the Application for Driver’s License she had duly signed, together with the receipt for medical examination. He asked me if her picture had been taken. I said yes (my daughter says it had been taken). He then went into his cubicle. He came back in just about 15 seconds to tell me that the picture had not been taken, thus I could not secure the license; that my daughter would have to appear personally and have her picture taken. I told him that my daughter was positive that her picture had been taken. He replied that it sometimes could happen—photos get erased from time to time due to computer breakdowns.

That could have been the end of the story as I was resigned to the fact that, based on regulations, I could not get the license. Rules are rules. Besides, my daughter could have been wrong about her photo being taken.

But when I asked him if there was any other way to secure the license, he replied there was but it was expensive. When I asked him how expensive, he replied “P6,000.” I sensed then that there was something wrong here. I asked him if a receipt would be issued for the amount. He said no as “dadaan  tayo sa backdoor ng LTO” (we will use the LTO backdoor). I then went to the waiting area outside the office to ponder what had transpired and to plan my next move. I asked myself how could that be possible if no photo had been taken? He came out in a while and asked me for my decision. I replied I could not afford the P6,000 he was asking. In a sort of self-preservation move, he told me that it was not him directly that would get the license, but he had friends who could.

I found out later the name of this employee and mentioned it to branch head Cabeliza in that meeting.

In this time of citizen’s outrage over the thievery perpetuated by crooks in government, this vulture of an employee of a government office, tasked with the responsibility to serve the people of this country, had the gall to try to milk me. I have been faithfully paying my taxes from the day I started working till the day I retired; I am a retiree whose children, with a combined income that may just be a drop in the bucket compared to the money our legislators are making, have probably paid more in income taxes than some, if not most, of them! This is an outrage!

It was then that I decided to report the incident to branch head Cabeliza. I trust that she would impose the appropriate and necessary disciplinary action against this shameless human vulture, as she assured me last Aug. 30.

—ROBERT ALVAREZ HYNDMAN,

Rotary Club of Parañaque South,

Parañaque City