LTO chief eyeing registration of all electronic bikes due to accidents

Land Transportation Office chief Vigor Mendoza

The Land Transportation Office (LTO) said it is considering the mandatory registration of all kinds of electronic bikes or e-bikes.

LTO chief Vigor Mendoza, quoted by Unang Balita, said this was due to the high number of accidents involving e-bikes

“If the vehicle is running less than 25 kilometers per hour, you don’t have to register it with the LTO, although we’d like to deviate from that thinking,” Mendoza said.

From January to November last year, the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) recorded 556 accidents related to e-bikes in the National Capital Region (NCR).

At present, e-bike drivers are not required to have a license. Mendoza said the LTO is coming up with a proposal that e-bikes should be registered regardless of the speed of the vehicle.

A transport group has sought anew the assistance of the Department of Transportation (DOTr) on the collection of computer fees by the LTO amid Mendoza’s order to stop the fee collection.

“We have already sent a letter-complaint to Secretary (Jaime) Bautista regarding this seeming non-compliance of LTO chief Assistant Secretary Vigor Mendoza II, to his directive issued last December to stop collecting the P169 computer fees,” Jun Rustico Braga,   Federated Land Transport Organizations of the Philippines (FELTOP board director and spokesperson said.

FELTOP earlier hailed the DOTr chief, Secretary Bautista’s, prompt action on their previous complaint against the collection of a P169 computer fees by the LTO in the processing of public utility vehicle registration renewals and miscellaneous transactions.

The officers of FELTOP, led by its president Diolito Inosanto, and officers Namita Lorenzo and Braga, had been met by Bautista in his office at the OSec DOTr in the Primex Tower along EDSA in Greenhills, San Juan City last Dec. 20.

The P169 computer fee had been already removed earlier when the LTO, under the previous Duterte administration, undertook the computerization of their in-house IT systems and contracted for the establishment of the Land Transportation Management System (LTMS).

Mendoza meanwhile commended two transport groups in the National Capital Region for their initiative to have the passenger jeepneys of their members be registered amid the implementation of the no-registration, no-travel policy.

The cooperation of the transport groups is essential in the success of the government’s efforts to register as many delinquent motor vehicles, both private and those being used for public transportation, he stressed.

He lauded the leaders and members of the Dagat-Dagatan-Navotas Transport Cooperative for joining the activity at the terminal of the Kartujoda Transport Cooperative in Karuhatan, Valenzuela City.