Drivers told to settle fines with LTO office, not fixers

Drivers who want to recover their confiscated licenses are advised to pay the exact amount of fines directly to the cashier of the Land Transportation Office and never to fixers.

LTO-7 legal officer Vicente Gador Jr. noted that some drivers have managed to get their confiscated licenses back by paying lesser amount through fixers that could be in connivance with some corrupt LTO personnel.

The drivers do not know that their supposed payment of their fines just went to the pockets of the fixers and corrupt LTO personnel, but then their record of fines remains unsettled still in the databank of the agency’s computers.

Taxi driver Sergio Escultor, of barangay Inayawan, found this true when he tried to have his driver’s license renewed last week.

Escultor committed traffic offenses twice in the past and each time his license was confiscated, but then in both instances he got his license back with the help of a fixer.

In 2004, Escultor was apprehended for a traffic offense and he was slapped with P3,400 fine. He said he was able to get back his license by paying only P1,500 through a fixer.

Last year, Escultor was again apprehended for another offense and was charged with P1,500 fine. Again, he said he was able to get back his license by paying a fixer P800 only.

When Escultor went to the LTO outlet for renewal of license, an LTO staff told him his license could not be processed for renewal until he pays the pending fines, incurred in the past, that amounted already to P5,056 inclusive of surcharges.

Gador said all pending fines are recorded in the computerized data of the LTO law enforcement and traffic adjudication system and, as such, drivers cannot renew their licenses if they fail to settle these fines first.

The renewal of licenses or the issuance of the new drivers license are already issued in major LTO branches, such as in Cebu City, but the drivers’ records still come from the LTO-head office, he said. — Rene U. Borromeo/RAE