Back in 2017, when a politician by the name of Pantaleon Alvarez was still very dominant and influential before being defanged by Sara Duterte, his so-called Land Transport Act of 2017 made a lot of noise. In particular, the bill called for the creation of a hybrid transport agency called Land Transportation Authority in place of the existing Land Transportation Office and Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board. But also part of that bill was the implementation of a nationwide motor vehicle inspection system that would theoretically improve upon the farcical pre-registration process we now have (read: perfunctory visual scrutiny and ineffective emissions testing).

Well, the Land Transportation Authority seems to be dead in the water (at least for now), but the comprehensive vehicle inspection system is very much alive and kicking. In fact, the Department of Transportation has just announced that the LTO is set to open 32 Private Motor Vehicle Inspection Centers by the end of this month:

REGION 1:

• San Fernando, La Union
• Vigan, Ilocos Sur
• Laoag, Ilocos Norte
• Lingayen and Alaminos, Pangasinan

REGION 3:

• Angeles, Pampanga

REGION 4A:

• Dasmariñas, Cavite
• San Pedro, Laguna

REGION 4B:

• Calapan, Oriental Mindoro

NATIONAL CAPITAL REGION:

• Pasig City
• Valenzuela City

REGION 5:

• Pamplona, Camarines Sur
• Pili, Camarines Sur
• Sorsogon City
• Daet, Camarines Norte

REGION 6:

• Roxas City, Capiz

REGION 7:

• Mandaue, Cebu (2 sites)
• Danao, Cebu
• Naga, Cebu
• Dumaguete, Negros Oriental (2 sites)
• Tagbilaran, Bohol
• Tubigon, Bohol
• Bais, Negros Oriental

REGION 8:

• Maasin City, Southern Leyte
• Ormoc City, Leyte

REGION 9:

• Ipil, Zamboanga Sibugay

REGION 10:

• Iligan, Lanao del Norte
• Ozamis, Misamis Occidental

REGION 11:

• Mati, Davao Oriental
• Panabo, Davao del Norte

REGION 12:

• General Santos, Cotabato

According to DOTr, PMVICs are “privately owned automated vehicle inspection facilities that will not only check a vehicle’s compliance with emission standards, but will also test its roadworthiness prior to registration.”

Yes, you read that right: automated. No more manual procedures that are being blamed for the rampant corruption at current emissions testing centers.

“Yung automated inspection, titignang mabuti ang roadworthiness ng sasakyan nang sa ganun, malaman kung ligtas itong bumaybay sa kalsada,” Transportation Secretary Arthur Tugade said in a press statement. “Hindi na po manu-mano ang inspection. Machine po ang gagawa kaya naman accurate ang resulta. At dahil limited ang human intervention, mawawala ’yung sinasabi nating opportunities for corruption.”

After the activation of the above-mentioned PMVICs this month, LTO targets the opening of more sites: 29 in September, 14 in October, three in November, five in December, and 25 in January 2021.

On paper, this project looks really good. We just hope that the “limited human intervention” won’t be enough opening for dishonest personnel to abuse. Because we all know what happened to the universally hated emissions testing centers. We also hope that the whole process won’t be too-time consuming nor too expensive, because that’s how fixers thrive in the first place.

We’ll see soon enough.

NOTE: The above photos are not those of actual Private Motor Vehicle Inspection Centers.