MANILA, Philippines — The Land Transportation Office (LTO) is preparing to blacklist the contractor behind its P3.2-billion Land Transportation Management System (LTMS) over alleged contractual violations after the agency said the platform remained incomplete when the agreement expired in May.
LTO Executive Director Martin Ontog identified the contractor as Dermalog Identification Systems GmbH, a German technology firm awarded the LTMS contract in 2018.
During a recent Committee on Transportation hearing at the House of Representatatives, Ontog said the LTMS has remained incomplete for over 900 days despite 13 contract extensions.
This has resulted in system limitations such as not being able to process public utility vehicle transactions and automatically collect penalties on new vehicle registrations.
Ontog also pointed out that the Commission on Audit has repeatedly flagged the LTMS for numerous deficiencies since 2023. He disclosed that Dermalog’s maintenance contract expried without patching, active monitoring, and incident response, thus exposing the LTMS to frequent breakdowns and security risks.
“Because Dermalog continues to withhold the source code, encryption keys, and full administrative and database access, including the transfer of LTO’s complete database of vehicle registrations and driver’s licenses, the LTO is effectively blind in operating, maintaining, and most critically securing the LTMS. We cannot secure a system we do not control,” Ontog explained.
Several legislators warned that a foreign entity’s continued control of the LTMS source code could pose data privacy and national security risks.
Las Piñas City Rep. Mark Anthony Santos feared that Dermalog could potentially leak the personal data of roughly 10 million motorists, citing unsolicited text messages he recently received regarding alleged traffic violations.
Aklan Rep. Jesus Marquez questioned whether the LTMS database could be compromised under the current setup after discovering that his birth information in the system appeared to have been altered.
Meanwhile, the Office of the Solicitor General has asked the Supreme Court to compel Dermalog to turn over the source code to the LTO and to expedite its resolution of a petition filed by concerned citizens seeking to nullify the LTMS contract.