By HERBERT VEGO
WE senior citizens recall those days when there was only one office performing the functions of today’s Land Transportation Office (LTO) and the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB). In the 1950s, it was known as the Motor Vehicles Office (MVO).
It changed names a few more times until the office divided into two, presumably to cope with the increasing number of motorists and motor vehicles.
Compared to the twin agencies, the MVO was more efficient. I remember that whenever my late father registered his jeepney, he did not have to fight with employees to process his papers. The office issued vehicular tin plates immediately after registration – with a new plate and plate number yearly.
The LTO today concerns itself with registration of all drivers and vehicles; the LTFRB, with granting regulated franchises and routes to public utility vehicles.
Today, it takes months for the LTO to issue plates for new vehicles. For renewed registrants, it sticks “registration year” stickers on old plates.
But of course, its saving grace today is the faster releasing of the driver’s license.
In the MVO days, getting a driver’s license for the first time was tough. The applicant had to pass theoretical and actual driving lessons.
Today, despite the high cost of driver’s license and vehicle registration, the LTO only conducts driving lecture that falls on deaf ears and administers easy-to-pass written exam. Unlike in other countries, there is no actual training ground where student drivers drive through different driving conditions, and where only training passers get a license.
No wonder fatal road accidents send drivers and passengers either to the cemetery or the hospital everyday.
***
Yesterday, I read the news on a newly-hatched LTO-LTFRB idea, which is unpalatable to the Association of Taxi Operators in Panay (ATOP), specifically to ATOP president Perfecto Yap. It’s about the proposal requiring taxi operators to register their units first as “private” and second as “for hire.” It’s obvious that this would entail double expenses for the operators, who already have more than 2,000 taxi units registered in Iloilo.
Methinks LTFRB has forgotten its regulatory function in favor of maximizing collection – whether for government, or for themselves.
The oversupply of taxi cabs in Iloilo, as this corner has repeatedly mentioned, has benefited the operators but not the drivers and the riding public. The operator collects a fixed daily “boundary” of more or less a thousand pesos from each driver. The driver, on the other hand, stands to lose whenever he picks not enough passengers to cope with the “boundary.” More often than not, he drives around “passengerless” while contributing to the traffic problem.
I have heard from several operators and drivers that the reason why LTFRB continues to grant more franchises to big-time taxi operators is because the latter know how to “grease.”
***
Have you heard about the Rich Earth Institute? It’s an American research group specializing in discovering uses for what we consider “useless.”
For example, Rich Earth has proven that human urine could be a better substitute to commercial fertilizer because it is naturally rich in nitrogen, potassium, and phosphorus. With about 30 billion gallons produced every year in the US alone, it’s certainly in abundant supply.
For the average person, a year’s worth of urine contains about eight pounds of nitrogen and nearly one pound of phosphorus.
According to Rich Earth, which is running an experiment in nutrient reclamation, using source-separated urine as fertilizer, getting urine out of wastewater and into agriculture will not only help reduce pollution but will also be a viable natural fertilizer for the future.
Rich’s survey showed: “The average person flushes the toilet five times a day, and four of those times are just for urine. This means that 80 percent of our flushwater is used just to get rid of urine! That is a lot of clean water used to transport ‘liquid gold’ into the sewer. If we save it instead of flushing it, we can harvest a valuable resource that we can use in agriculture.”
If there’s any local company out there willing to buy urine for fertilizer conversion, the streets would probably be urine-free, hence cleaner, next Dinagyang, Ati-Atihan and Sinulog festivals./PN
