Assistant Secretary Jay Art Tugade steps down as LTO Chief

The Land Transportation Office (LTO) will face its third “changing of the guard” in under a year.

Atty. Jay Art Tugade has announced he is stepping down as the LTO chief after six months in service.

During Atty. Tugade's tenure as LTO chief, the agency made a lot of reforms to further streamline the services it is offering to the public. In terms of traffic management, the single ticketing system was implemented for apprehending traffic violators, making use of electronic handheld devices to issue traffic citation tickets.

Furthermore, the removal of periodic medical exams, the standardization of private driving school fees, as well as free theoretical driving courses were implemented under Atty. Tugade's term.

However, the LTO is faced with the issue regarding supply of plastic cards for driver's licenses and license plates for both motor vehicles and motorcycles, which are two of the main functions of the agency. To alleviate the problem, the LTO was about to roll out the digital drivers' license with help from the DICT, as well as changing the initial validity of registration of motorcycles from 1 year to 3 years.

In his statement, Atty. Tugade says he is relinquishing the post in order for DOTr Sec. Jimmy Bautista to have “the free hand to choose who he can work best with”.

The LTO is yet to issue a statement regarding Atty. Tugade's replacement, but do watch this space for further updates.