Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph G. Recto on Wednesday warned that over 2 million professional drivers set to renew or apply for licenses are likely to lose P3 billion in “fees and lost income” if the temporarily suspended requirement to secure clearances from the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) and the Philippine National Police (PNP) is not scrapped altogether.
Recto pressed his appeal for “scrapping, and not just mere suspension” of the Land Transportation Office (LTO) order requiring professional drivers to first obtain the NBI and PNP clearances as a requisite for the issuance of driving licenses.
Conceding the points raised by Recto and Senate President Franklin M. Drilon at Tuesday’s plenary deliberations on the proposed 2016 budget of the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC), the LTO agreed to suspend and review the requirement.
Recto said this should give the DOTC-LTO, NBI and PNP enough time to “establish interconnectivity between their databases so that drivers won’t have to spend time and money lining up for those clearances.”
The senator suggested that the NBI and the PNP can just draw up “a negative list” of wanted criminals and furnish this to the LTO.
Noting that a solution can be achieved through file sharing, Recto wondered: “Why should public information be the subject of commerce?”
“Kung may red flag ang pangalan mo, then that’s the time that you get a clearance. This way, only those tagged will have to present evidence to the contrary. Hindi ’yung dalawang milyong tao ang peperwisyuhin mo sa pagkahaba-habang pila para kumuha ng mga clearances,” the senator said.
Citing statistics, Recto estimated that the number of professional drivers who will apply for new or have their licenses renewed next year could reach 2,180,576.
He added that the cost of an NBI clearance is P115, and a local police clearance, P170. But before the police issues a clearance, it requires the applicant to present a barangay clearance, which costs P50. However, a barangay clearance will only be issued if the applicant has a Community Tax Certificate, the average cost of each is P20, Recto said.
At the same time, he also noted that the PNP also requires two ID photos of the applicant, which adds P60 to the cost.
“If you add all of this, it will come up to P415. You multiply this with the number of professional drivers, you get almost P1 billion—just on fees alone,” Recto said.
The Senator pointed out that applying for clearances from three offices—Barangay Council, NBI and PNP—will consume, at the fastest, two days. “Because one will absent from work to do this, then that’s two days’ worth of salary gone. That’s at least P1,000 down the drain per applicant, or P2 billion in lost income for the affected drivers,” Recto said.
He supported Drilon’s suggestion for the DOTC to clarify what derogatory information on the required clearances will lead to the rejection of the application and if such will impinge on the privilege of an individual to operate a motor vehicle. “Tama si Sen. Frank ng sinabi nya kung may kaso ka ng libel at hindi ka pa convicted, bakit ka pagkakaitan ng pribilehiyong magmaneho,” Recto said, adding: “If you’re an activist and you have a pending case for illegal assembly, I think this shouldn’t be made a basis for the rejection of your application to drive.”