LTO: We need to buy new breathalyzers

Last month, the Land Transportation Office (LTO) announced that 468 out of 756 units of breathalyzers that the agency has procured starting in 2015 are going to the trash bin. This means that only a handful of breathalyzers can be repaired or reused for deployment in field operations.

A breath analyzer or breathalyzer is a device used for measuring breath alcohol content for the conduct of Republic Act 10586 or the Anti-Drunk and Drugged Driving Act of 2013.

Now, the LTO says that the agency is looking into procuring brand-new units of breathalyzers, to ensure the effective enforcement of RA 10586.

“We have an existing Philippine Road Safety Action Plan which is being actively pushed by our DOTr Secretary Jaime Bautista and the strict enforcement of Anti-Drunk and Drugged Driving Act of 2013 and the Road Speed Limiter Act of 2016 are part of this plan,” said LTO Chief, Atty. Vigor Mendoza II.

“And to ensure effective enforcement, we have to download as many breath analyzers that could be used by traffic and law enforcers on the ground,” he added.

Currently, Assec Mendoza said they are waiting for the final assessment of what remained of the 756 units of breath analyzers that were procured in 2015 and 2017. Part of the assessment, according to Mendoza is the conduct of an analysis if it would be more practical to buy new breath analyzers than have them fixed and recalibrated.

If that’s the road that the agency will take, Mendoza assured that the LTO’s procurement process would be transparent.