The Land Transportation Office (LTO) on Wednesday vowed to hit hard on unregistered vehicles as well as their inter-island operations.
LTO chief Vigor Mendoza said the agency’s top officials will sit down with other law enforcement agencies in a bid to come up with a comprehensive plan to finally eliminate the illegal operation of colorum vehicles across the country.
Mendoza pledged to implement a more aggressive crackdown on colorums, citing the illicit activity’s adverse effects on legitimate transport operators who claimed losing 30 percent of their income per day due to colorum operators.
“Taking the cue from the directive of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., which was echoed by Transportation Secretary Jaime Bautista, the LTO intends to double time its efforts and widen its net by coordinating efforts with the Philippine National Police, Philippine Coast Guard and Last month, and Special Action and Intelligence Committee for Transportation,” Mendoza said.
He met yesterday with the Chief Executive in San Juan City.
As a former member of a task group against colorums years ago, Mendoza has infused the good practices in recalibrating the strategies against colorum vehicles.
He said the LTO will also strengthen coordination with ports authorities in order to ensure that colorum vehicles would not be able to make inter-island trips, especially using the roll-on roll-off vessels.
“We will shut the doors in the various ports to prevent colorum motor vehicles from travelling from the Visayas to Metro Manila,” he warned.
“We will also hit them at the terminals and expressways. We will control key junctions throughout key cities to prevent them from plying,” he emphasized.