Can anyone spell SCAM?

Sunstar
Wednesday, October 24, 2012
REMEMBER the Great RFID Fiasco? When we all trotted down to the LTO for our
Radio Frequency Identification stickers, paid the man, stuck them on our
windshields, only to find two months on that the scheme had been abandoned and
we could kiss goodbye to our P700 fee?
Well, the brains down at the LTO have come up with another gem, the National
Vehicle License Plate Standardization Scheme to, ummm, standardize license
plates. Yes, I know, license plates are already standardized but heads up -this
is a NEW standardization and, what's more, every five years every vehicle owner
will be required to exchange his new standard license plates for a set of new,
new standard license plates at a cost of P450.
Check our new look and tell us what you think.
Does that sound, as LTO officials insist, like a measure to 'help facilitate
vehicle identification, prevent theft of license plates and avert the
indiscriminate and illegal transfer of plates' or does it sound like the
government and the LTO screwing yet more money out of the motoring public ?
And for what? Will we see the opening of provincial LTO yards to deal with this
huge mass of extra officialdom, even satellite LTO offices around Davao City
itself? Or will it be the same old day-long wait at the LTO to process a
transaction which in other countries can be achieved at any post office and in
five minutes?
Come January 1, 2013, every motorist paying his annual road tax will exchange
his number plates for a set of 'standardized' ones. Sounds simple doesn't it but
we know better don't we? This is the Philippines, the nation which invented red
tape and bureaucratic inefficiency and intransigence. There'll be 'documentary
requirements' which might include copies of last year's sticker release official
receipt, the vehicle's registration document, last year's tax paid official
receipt (information already in the LTO's computer) and possibly stencils of the
old plates. Then, documents submitted, monies paid, the motorist will be handed
a chit - come back in three days, three weeks, three months - it won't matter
really because the 'release' window will have a notice posted - 'No plates
available'.
And note that the new plates are to be affixed by 'authorized LTO personnel'
only. How many drivers turn up at the LTO's Quimpo Boulevard base every day?
I've no idea but from January 1 they'll have to bring their vehicles with them
and park up in the yard for the LTO's 'authorized personnel' to wheel out the
wrenches, WD40 and most likely acetylene cutting gear to change the plates.
Thank the stars I got rid of my car. No gas to buy, no parking problems, no
traffic hassles and best of all - NO LTO!

Larry