High Court stops electronic vehicle ID system

The Supreme Court temporarily stopped the government from implementing a program requiring vehicle owners to install electronic identification tags on their cars, jeepneys, and buses. The High Court’s status quo ante order would restore the prevailing situation prior to the implementation of the radio frequency identification (RFID) program, Supreme Court spokesman Jose Midas Marquez said on Tuesday. The High Court issued the order after it found merit in arguments raised by groups opposing the program. Respondents – the Land Transportation Office, the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC), and private contractor Stradcom Corp. – were also told to submit their comments within ten days.
In an earlier petition, Bayan Muna, Gabriela, Anakpawis, and Pagkakaisa ng mga Samahan ng Tsuper at Operator Nationwide (Piston) claimed that the program ran contrary to the provisions of Republic Act 9184. The Government Procurement Act requires all government procurement to go through competitive public bidding. Vehicle owners would also suffer irreparable injury with the program’s implementation, the petition said, unnecessarily burdening vehicle owners. Under the RFID program, the Land Transportation Office (LTO) will install stickers containing a microchip that stores vehicle information. The agency will charge P350 for all of the country’s 4,760,593 vehicles, raising P1.6 billion for the LTO. The LTO is reportedly the national government’s third largest revenue earner, next to the Bureaus of Internal Revenue and Customs. The RFID tag will be procured from Stradcom, the company that runs the LTO’s information system. However, Marquez said it would be up to the LTO to reimburse motorists who have already paid for their RFID stickers. Vehicles owners can seek refunds since the Court’s order is to restore the situation prior to its implementation, he said. But at the same time, he said that “there is no order for LTO to reimburse the motorists because the issue on the merit of the case is still pending." Other transport groups, including the Federation of Jeepney Operators and Drivers Association of the Philippines (Fejodap), supported the RFID program. The RFID would increase their daily income since it will cut operations of illegal – or colorum – public utility vehicles. RFID readers are expected to identify colorum vehicles even if these are moving at a speed of more than 100 kilometers an hour. The readers can also detect these vehicles at certain distances. Besides simplifying and expediting the vehicle registration process, RFID will also promote clean air, Fejodap said. Owners will be obliged to bring their vehicles for smoke emission testing since these have to be read by hand-eld scanners by the smoke emission tester for proper identification, the group added. - RJAB, Jr/ARCS/GMANews.TV