Ejercito wants car registration done online

Senator JV Ejercito has filed a resolution urging the Land Transportation Office (LTO) to study online vehicle registration.

Vehicle registration should only take an hour at most, compared with the current process which takes as much as four days, the lawmaker said.

"In reality, the public spends an average of two to four days to register a motor vehicle due to inefficiency and inadequacy of LTO employees and facilities," he said in an emailed statement.

“The establishment and implementation of an online facility for the registration of motor vehicle will promote transparency in LTO with regard to its manner of transacting with the public and will simplify the registration procedure, thereby reducing red tape and expedite transactions with the agency,” the senator noted.

In a separate statement, the Filipino Alliance for Transparency and Empowerment (FATE) said motorists spend time, money and effort due to the lengthy manual registration at the LTO.

"The Filipino people is also losing P4 billion a year as they need to be absent from their work just to be able to go to the LTO and register their vehicles," FATE said claimed.

The LTO registered 3.001 million of drivers' licenses and permits in January to June 2016. It also registered 5.037 million motor vehicles during the same period.

"If registration is made online, it not only speeds up the process, but government can increase and generate more collections as those in far areas, or are too busy, can simply register online," FATE spokesperson Jo Perez said.

"There is an urgent need to modernize car registration. Not only will it convenience the vehicle owner and rid LTO of long lines, but will also end all fixers in the agency," Perez said. — Jon Viktor D. Cabuenas/VDS, GMA News