LTO ends STRADCOM computer fee, a welcome break for motorcycle riders
The Land Transportation Office (LTO) has announced that it is phasing out its old STRADCOM IT system. This move also means the end of the collection of the PHP 169.06 computer fee charged on transactions processed through the legacy system.
For motorcycle riders who earn their income one day at a time, PHP 169.06 is a big charge. Depending on their daily earnings, the amount can account for a significant share of a day’s wage, making its removal a welcome reduction in the cost of keeping a motorcycle legally registered.
LTO Chief, Markus Lacanilao, last week ordered concerned offices to immediately stop using the agency’s STRADCOM IT system and shift to the exclusive use of the Land Transportation Management System (LTMS).
The directive follows an order from the Office of the Ombudsman requiring the LTO to discontinue the use of the legacy STRADCOM system and process official transactions through the LTMS. Under Memorandum Nos. MVL-2026-207 and MVL-2026-208, the agency ordered the immediate termination of STRADCOM at Enhanced Driver’s License System (EDLS) pilot sites and 42 designated Temporary Offsite Printing Offices (TOPOs).
The computer fee had been imposed on motorists and other LTO clients for transactions processed through the STRADCOM-operated IT system.
“Auto-late fee”
The transition to a single system could also address another problem that motorists have encountered with the parallel use of STRADCOM and LTMS, which is the automatic imposition of late registration penalties.
In many cases, a vehicle’s registration renewal transaction recorded in STRADCOM did not appear in LTMS (or vice versa) when the owner returned the following year. Without the previous transaction in its database, LTMS could treat the vehicle as having missed its renewal deadline and automatically impose late registration fees.
Consolidating transactions under LTMS should allow the LTO to keep registration records within one system instead of having motorists deal with discrepancies between two separate databases.
PHP 28.56 billion in fees sought refunded
The end of the computer fee also comes as Coalition 169 continues to push for a review and possible refund or restitution of the money collected under the charge.
The group launched its “Refund 169” campaign in August, calling for a legal review of the computer fees collected by the LTO. Coalition 169 estimates that around PHP 28.56 billion in computer fees had been collected from motorists and other LTO clients from February 2013 to the present through the STRADCOM-operated LTO IT system.
