The LTO on Road Mess

Hole of Justice

By Peter G. Jimenea
 

The LTO on Road Mess

 

BLACK SMOKE. Everyday lot of vehicles running on the streets are seen fuming black smoke. This creates a suspicion that car owners have bribed the operators of emission centre to issue them clearance for registration of their unfit vehicles with the Land Transportation Office (LTO).

 

The dirty smoke coming out from the exhaust pipes of vehicles are health and environment hazard. Law abiding car owners who witnessed this road mess can only shake their heads in contempt for the gross failure of LTO-6 to enforce the “Clean Air Act” law.

 

I don’t know what happened to the taskforce created by LTO-6 in checking at random the tolerable level of smoke emitted by motor vehicles on the streets. A belching machine owned by LTO is used to gauge it. But it disappeared. On why, we have yet to know. What a waste of taxpayers’ money!

 

Tolerance of LTO-6 Regional Director Dennis Singson to this road mess is unfair to other car owners who religiously complied with the required emission test prior registration. The law says; ignorantia legis est lata culpa- to be ignorant of the law is gross neglect.

 

Dir. Singson did not inquire because he knew nothing about this. Now he does. We hope to hear from him soon. As head of office, he should know his official accountability and responsibility attendant hereto. But we have yet to see his enforcing authority on this matter.

 

He has the discretion to implement the “Clean Air Act” in his turf. This will send a strong signal to the operators of emission centre and the vehicle owner not to cheat their way out to the LTO to register. But the discretion must be exercised in accordance with the tune and niceties of this law.

IMPROPER MOTOR VEHICLE’S PLATE. There are lot of motor vehicles on the road with plate numbers we could hardly read. Some expensive vehicles are using plates covered with hard-plastic. Some have dilapidated plates due to rusting. Others have dirty and worn-out paints. Some used home-made plate unauthorized by the LTO.

This use of unreadable plate number on motor vehicle should be stopped. The report of hit and run accident is counting. RD Singson should act now to curb this road mess. The culprit-driver always escaped liability because the vehicle has unreadable plate numbers.

Here’s for the heart, The LTO has put-up checkpoints for motorcycle riders only. But the police are already there to intimidate the criminals riding in tandem on motorcycle. Isn’t this LTO checkpoint a duplication of police function?  And why check on a selective mode of inspection? 

Why not check on every passing vehicle’s plate if it is approved by the LTO? Why make motorcycle a marked target of LTO checkpoints? Here, the director has a lot of explaining to do. But he can work in tandem with the city government to avoid more hit and run cases in Region 6.

 

So many victims died without getting justice. Witnesses claimed they failed to see clearly the numbers on the vehicles’ plate. LTO’s neglect to this problem has also contributed to these crimes. The law dictates, culpa lata dolo a equiparatur – gross negligence is equivalent to malice or intentional wrong. (261 SCRA 128).

 

Well, I hope to have consoled the poor families of hit and run victims who are still crying to God for justice. I also wish that LTO-6 RD Singson can act promptly on the problems brought to his attention. I am sure he’ll subscribes to this, that for a good chief of office, he is better missed than damned.