Modernizer

Anecdotal evidence shows many motorists think the RFID is an idea whose time has come. Even after the Supreme Court issued a temporary restraining order on the program, people coming to the LTO to register their vehicles are demanding the RFID sticker to be installed on their windshields. They are disappointed the technology has been put on hold.

For the first time ever, there is a consensus among the transport groups supporting the RFID. The only transport group opposing the program is the left-wing Piston, an association of jeepney drivers.

It was Piston that filed suit at the Supreme Court and won temporary suspension of the program. All the other transport groups have submitted their respective interventions with the Court, expressing support for the RFID.

The sooner the Court rules on the matter, the better. The RFID program has been in the works for five years. The opportunity costs that might be derived from this program increase by the day.

Strangely, Piston itself is not registered with the SEC. It has no corporate personality. It is, itself, a colorum transport group.

And others in the transport industry say that the mass base of Piston is composed largely of colorum transport units. These illegal units steal fare from legitimate transport operators who bid for their franchises, pay the proper fees and abide by regulations that protect the riding public.

Little wonder that this ideological group opposes the introduction of electronic technologies that will facilitate identification of vehicles and effectively flush out colorum operators. It is opposing modernization efforts to protect a small minority of illegal operators stealing fare from legitimate enterprises.

This is not an isolated case. The leftist groups have also opposed other reforms using digital technologies that will facilitate effective governance and enhance enforcement. For instance, they have resisted an integrated national identification system that will bring much convenience to all our citizens.

They do this for the most self-serving reasons, even as they mouth sweeping civil rights rhetoric to cover actual motives. The leftist groups here thrive on romanticizing clandestine lifestyles. Idiosyncratic as it might seem, they continue to use noms de guerre and encrypted documents. They really belong to another age and are trying to slow our movement to modernity to suit only their own interests.

It is rather odd that while we try to employ digital technologies for our electoral process and supermarket check-out counters, there are those resisting the use of the same technologies for more effective regulation of our roads.

The computerization program of the LTO is probably the most successful use of digital technologies in the whole of government.

Because of a build-operate-transfer arrangement with Stradcom Corporation, the LTO had vastly improved its efficiency. Before computerization, it took between 3 to 6 months to get a new plastic license. Today, that is done in well under an hour. Renewal of car registration used to be chore that consumed a whole day to complete. Today, it is done in about an hour.

Without adding a single employee to its workforce, the LTO has been able to efficiently process triple the volume of transactions over the past few years. Because of that, the agency has been able to substantially increase its revenues without significantly increasing charges for its services.

Because of computerization, the LTO has been able to more than double its revenues. The beauty of a build-operate-transfer deal is that government did not have to spend taxpayer money to modernize. Today, Stradcom even pays for the electricity consumed by LTO offices.

The LTO’s computerization program undertaken by Stradcom has earned numerous awards here and abroad. It is an iconic program for our efforts to move as quickly as possible towards e-governance.

Even as there was never a lack of jealous rivals who would want to unmake the partnership between LTO and Stradcom, the computerization contract has been upheld by the Commission on Audit in 2005 against claims that it is disadvantageous to government. Stradcom won the computerization contract by entering a bid significantly lower than its nearest competitor.

Under the terms of this contract, Stradcom has invested billions in injecting new technologies into the operations of the LTO without significantly increasing fees. Such is the wonder of efficient communications technologies. The LTO is now the cutting edge of our e-governance efforts, the lead modernizer of the way we do government.

As part of the incentives offered Stradcom to invest in our e-government program, the corporation was given the usual exemptions from taxation in its pioneering phase. The incentives ended in 2008. For 2009, Stradcom’s audited financial statements showed the firm made a mere 5% return on investment against the 25% allowed it by the NEDA.

The RFID program that has been put on hold by the Supreme Court is a component of the comprehensive computerization contract that was upheld by the Audit Commission. As such it did not have to go through a separate round of negotiations and bidding.

Those resisting the completion of this multi-faceted computerization program better have more substantial arguments against it than the flimsy ones they have so far put forward. Those of us who have benefited from the convenience brought about by more efficient processing by a government agency do not look with favor at efforts to delay completion of a computerization program that has worked remarkably.