Mandatory vehicle inspection via PMVICs still suspended —LTO

The Land Transportation Office on Thursday said the mandatory inspection of motor vehicles at private motor vehicle inspection centers (PMVICs) remains suspended as earlier ordered by the Department of Transportation (DOTr).

In a statement, LTO chief Edgar Galvante pointed out that PMVICs have not been ordered to stop their operations and that motor vehicle owners still have the option to have their vehicles tested for roadworthiness and compliance with the Clean Air Act either at a PMVIC or at a private emission testing center (PETC) with the required LTO visual inspection.

Galvante made the clarification in response to a statement released on Wednesday by Senator Grace Poe saying that her office had received information that some PMVICs in some provinces have resumed mandatory motor vehicle inspections despite the DOTr’s standing suspension order. 

In August, Transportation Secretary Tugade issued an instruction directing all regional offices of the LTO to suspend the mandatory inspection and testing of vehicles at PMVICs. 

Tugade also ordered the suspension of mandatory vehicle testing within geographic areas of responsibility (GAORs).

The suspension of the mandatory vehicle testing at PMVICs, and the suspension of the GAORs pave the way for a thorough review of the policy, according to the DOTr.

Meanwhile, Galvante said vehicle owners might have misinterpreted the LTO’s rollout of a new information technology (IT) system linking PMVICs with LTO offices with the aim of optimizing the agency’s Motor Vehicle Inspection and Registration System (MVIRS), as a re-imposition of the mandatory vehicle inspections at the PMVICs.

Likewise, the LTO chief clarified that the new IT system rolled out by the LTO called the Land Transportation Management System (LTMS), not only intends to optimize the use of the MVIRS, but also aims to gather sufficient baseline data to assess the roadworthiness status and safety of motor vehicles in the country.

“In the inspection and registration of motor vehicles in areas where there is a complete roll-out of the LTMS MVIRS, results from PMVICs will be utilized. The results gathered from the PMVICs shall be used as a baseline data to ensure that the system will be able to ensure road worthiness of vehicles plying our roads, thereby improving the road safety standards of the Philippines,” said Galvante in his memorandum to LTO regional directors dated October 6, 2021.

Galvante added that in areas where LTO offices are without LTMS or in areas where there is LTMS presence but no existing PMVICs, results of emission testing done by PETCs will be accepted for registration by the LTO office, subject to their visual inspection of the vehicle.

“The new memorandum issued by LTO is intended to roll out the Motor Vehicle Inspection and Registration System, which is one of the six core modules of the LTMS. It is not for the mandatory GAOR implementation, but a rollout of the LTMS MVIRS. Even with the current memo, PETC results will still be accepted and will be uploaded in the LTO’s record system,” Galvante said.

According to the LTO, on the average, 35,000 vehicle registration renewals are done in a day.

Before the current implementation of the new IT system, data from PMVICs only account for 5% or for 1,800 daily transactions.

With the new IT system, the LTO is aiming to increase this to 20% or to 7,000 transactions a day. As such, the LTO said that 80% of vehicle registration renewals are not affected and are still being tested at PETCs.

In regard to the scope of inspection, PMVIC facilities conduct full roadworthiness tests for the vehicle, including emission tests, as opposed to PETCs, which conduct only emission testing.

To address issues concerning the cost of inspection, PMVIC owners heeded the call of DOTr and LTO for them to charge the same amount of testing/inspection fee with that of PETCs.

Reinspection or retest fees were also waived. —LBG, GMA News