Mission possible

He has heard about the Land Transportation Office (LTO) computerization program. Yet he was not convinced that it would work. So when his time to renew his driver’s license approached, bank employee Rene Tuazon took a dayoff to devote his entire day queuing. "I heard about the new system," he said. "Pero parang publicity lang yata. I’m really not sure it can help me in any way."

Tuazon went to LTO’s district office in Makati at 9 a.m. last Feb. 4. He was expecting to be swarmed around by fixers offering assistance in obtaining driver’s licenses or in registering motor vehicles for a fee. But, to his surprise, he never saw any. He went straight to the LTO and found the place surprisingly clean and orderly.

The first thing that caught his eye was an information kiosk with a computer terminal standing in one corner. The computer, with a touch-screen monitor, gave him instant information on the LTO and its services – driver’s licensing, car registration, fines for traffic violations, etc. He took note of the new requirements for the license, followed the instructions and was shocked at how fast the agency processed his papers. In less than an hour, he was already walking out of the LTO still in disbelief as he held his gleaming new license card in his hand. Amazing? "I couldn’t believe it," Tuazon said.

"It took me six months before I got my old license card but now it only took me an hour." Tuazon is not alone. Daily, thousands of Filipinos are seeing the improvements that computerization has brought to the LTO’s system. The ambitious program, began in 1997, is now in place in most of LTO’s district offices in Metro Manila and in other regions.

Giant task

The idea to computerize the LTO came in 1992 to then President Fidel Ramos who wanted to capitalize on information technology to improve the government. Being a self-confessed IT fanatic, Mr. Ramos knew that computers couldn’t only replace typewriters; when networked, they could be a powerful tool that would allow any enterprise to save on time, personnel and money.

He ordered a feasibility study first. Funded by a $500,000 grant from the United States Trade Development Agency, the study took into account the entire LTO operation, its headquarters on East Avenue in Quezon City, its 250 district offices, its more than 2,500 employees and the 12 million transactions the agency handles every year.

The study concluded that an LTO computerization program is feasible, although its requirements would be too big for the cash-strapped government to shoulder on its own. It ruled that there was no way to computerize the LTO without the private sector’s help. Hence, the project was offered to private companies under the build-operate-and-transfer scheme. And one consortium, headed by a man with a giant vision for the country, responded.

Stradcom, a joint venture of Strategic Alliance Development Corp. and Comfac Corp., responded to the challenge. Its chairman, Cezar Quiambao, is a finance whiz kid who spent a good deal of his life in Indonesia, helping the Indonesian government in privately funded projects. He wanted to improve the quality of life in the Philippines, too. So he went into business with the government, put up the Metro Manila Skyway and targeted other projects which the government could never possibly bankroll.

Quiambao was not available for this story but his chief operating officer, Ramon Reyes, said he continues to have a firm belief on the LTO project as well as their other computerization undertakings for the Land Registration Authority and the Department of Foreign Affairs.

"We have survived three presidents and four assistant secretaries here at LTO," said Reyes. "So far, we are still on track. It’s really a difficult project but we’re determined to complete it."

Stradcom needed a total of $80 million or about P3.2 billion for the LTO project. After spending two-thirds of that amount, it was able to generate additional funding from new partners such as the International Finance Corp., an agency attached to the World Bank, and ePLDT, a subsidiary of telecommunications giant Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. With these new partners, Reyes expressed unwavering confidence that the project will be fully operational within the year.

Paperless process

What the computerization program is doing to the LTO is transforming it into a paperless agency. This may look simple at first glance, but not if you look closely at the millions of documents the LTO handles everyday in its numerous offices.

In one of its offices that handles registration of new cars, 20 people are encoding thousands of paper documents everyday and putting their contents in a database. The office, called MAIDRS (Manufacturers, Assemblers, Importers and Dealers Reporting System), issues what can be considered as the "birth certificates" of vehicles that are made or brought into the country.

Menelia Mortel, officer-in-charge of MAIDRS, said the computerization program has cut their processing time by more than 80 percent. "There are no more queuing in here. Manufacturers and dealers just leave their reports to us and come back at a certain day. We can now assure them that when they come back, they can already get their confirmation certificates or CCs which serve as the birth certificates of vehicles," she said.

Going paperless is never possible to do overnight, especially with an agency the size of the LTO. At present, Mortel’s people still encode the paper reports they receive. Soon, she said, they will be requiring manufacturers, assemblers, importers and their dealers to submit reports in diskettes to further lessen the work.

Reyes, for his part, said Stradcom is working to put this reporting process online through a server that manufacturers and dealers can access from their offices.

"The Internet is already there and it is ready to serve as a medium for this kind of work," he said.