New professional and non-professional driver's license holders should not be surprised if they get a call from the Land Transportation Office (LTO) verifying if they did take the written and practical examinations required by the agency.

This after LTO chief Assistant Secretary Virginia Torres directed all regional directors of Drivers Licensing Centers nationwide to submit to the LTO Central Office in Quezon City the written and practical exams given to appli- cant s , together with the applicants' names, address and contact numbers, and the dates they took their written and practical examinations.

Torres said contacting new professional and non-professional drivers is part of LTO's continuing effort to improve the present system of drivers' license issuance and restore integrity of the procedure.

“We will call these new professional and non-professional driver's license holders and ask them specific questions to verify if they truthfully took the written and practical examinations. This way, we will be able to identify the applicants who legally obtained their driver's license and those that took it the illegal way,” she said.

Once a driver's license holder fails the LTO's verification interview, Torres said they will get back at the Drivers Licensing Center that issued the license.

“We will file an administrative case against the district head of the Drivers Licensing Center that issued the license to the driver that will fail our interview. Following command responsibility, they should be made accountable for issuing licenses to applicants who did not really undertook the exams," she said.

Torres' directive, which was communicated through LTO memorandum circular VPT-2010-1382, took effect on September 1.

Vehicular accidents are usually attributed to unqualified driver's license holders, mechanical defects of the vehicle and the physical condition of the accident venue.

Just recently, a spate of road mishaps involving public utility buses killed a number of passengers in Benguet, Bicol and Quezon. PUBs are supposed to be driven only by professional driver's license holders.