SP joins call for PMVIC suspension
THE Sangguniang Panlalawigan joined other legislative bodies of local government units in calling for the suspension of the implementation of the controversial Private Motor Vehicle Inspection Centers (PMVICs), days after President Rodrigo Duterte ordered that requiring vehicles to go to PMVICs before a vehicle can be registered is not mandatory.
The call was made after the SP heard lawyer John Angel Bautista, legal officer of the Land Transportation Office (LTO) in Region 1 during its physical session on February 15 that the PMVICs will continue to operate except that “it is no longer mandatory for us in the LTO to require the motor vehicle inspection reports prior to registration.”
He told 2nd District Board Member Von Mark Mendoza that the President’s order merely made it clear that the requirement to submit to the Private Motor Vehicle Inspection System will not be imposed and that vehicles can continue to go through the Private Emission Testing Centers (PETCs) and the LTO will conduct the inspection.
Quoting Presidential Spokesman Harry Roque, Bautista said the term “not mandatory”
means that the PMVICs will still operate and vehicle owners may choose to go to PMVICs or to PETCs.
Asked by Mendoza to confirm if LTO indeed cancelled the PETCs prior to implementation of PMVIC, Bautista clarified only PETCs for motor vehicles below gross weight of 4,500 tons were canceled because the PMVICs do not have the capacity to inspect them.
Asked if there was any consultation conducted, particularly in Pangasinan, before the PMVICs were established, Bautista said there was a nationwide consultation but he had no knowledge if a consultation was done in Pangasinan.
Bautista, however, agreed with the observation of 4th District Board Member Jeremy Agerico Rosario that the implementation of PMVICs “is untimely, costly, and additional adversity and difficulty to the people in this time of the pandemic.”
Sixth District Board Member Noel Bince said it takes a law passed by Congress or a presidential fiat to finally put an end to PMVIC policy. (Leonardo Micua)
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