Members of militant groups hold a rally in front of the DoTC office in Mandaluyong City on Monday to protest LTO's project that tags motor vehicles with the Radio Frequency Identification Device (RFID). (Photo by MARIANNE BERMUDEZ)

Militant transport groups and their allies opposing the motor vehicle electronic tagging project of the Land Transportation Office staged a protest caravan from Quezon City to the Department of Transportation and Communications headquarters in Mandaluyong City on Monday in efforts to stop the controversial project.

Other transport groups, however, expressed support for the radio frequency identification (RFID) project, saying it would help eradicate illegal public utility vehicles that are competing with legitimate operators.

The protest caravan was led by the transport group Pagkakaisa ng mga Samahan ng Tsuper at Opereytor Nationwide (Piston) and the Gabriela women’s party, among others.

Allied groups had sought from the Supreme Court a temporary restraining order against the RFID project last December 16, claiming that a bill in Congress is needed for its execution.

The High Tribunal is expected to tackle the matter this Tuesday.

Lawmakers led by Bayan Muna Rep. Satur Ocampo petitioned the SC to declare the project unconstitutional and illegal. They claimed it did not pass through legal channels, including a public bidding process and review by the National Economic Development Authority.

Secretary Leandro Mendoza of the DOTC, LTO chief Arturo Lomibao and Stradcom Corp., the winning bidder for the project, were named respondents in the petition.

The petitioners charged the respondents with committing grave abuse of discretion: Mendoza for approving the implementation of the project without public bidding and in violation of the country’s procurement laws and Lomibao for issuing its implementing rules and regulations, a usurpation of the legislative power of Congress.

Under the RFID project, all vehicles are required to install stickers containing microchips that stores vehicle information.

For a one-time fee of P350, the LTO plans to install the RFID tags on some 4.7 million vehicles thereby raising P1.6 billion in revenues. Each RFID tag is supposed to last 10 years.

Asked for comment, DOTC spokesperson Thompson Lantion told reporters that what he knows is that the LTO informed the NEDA about the project, which was implemented starting last Jan. 4. He said the department would respect whatever the Supreme Court verdict would be.

Meanwhile, LTO spokesperson Jason Salvador said new receipts bearing the amount paid by a motorist for the RFID sticker have yet to arrive.

In the meantime, the RFID fee is being bundled with the computer fee, Salvador said in a late night radio program last Saturday.

For his part, Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) Chairman Alberto Suansing, a former LTO chief, defended the LTO from criticisms that the agency should defer the implementation of the project since it has no RFID scanners yet.

“The first phase of the project is the tagging of motor vehicles,” said Suansing, who supports the project as “the best solution against illegal public utility vehicles”, commonly called colorums.

Several transport groups favoring the project, meanwhile, asked the Supreme Court to allow them to intervene in the controversial case and to admit their opposition to the petition questioning the legality of the project.

In an urgent motion for intervention filed through their lawyer, the transport groups said they have a legal interest in the matter since they are “directly and actually affected by the benefits of the implementation of the RFID tag program.”

The groups include the Federation of Jeepney Operators and Drivers Association of the Philippines (FEJODAP), Alliance of Transport Operators and Drivers Associations of the Philippines (ALTODAP), Land Transportation Organization of the Philippines (LTOP), NTU-Transporter, Pasang-Masda Nationwide Inc., and Alliance of Concerned Transport Organizations (ACTO).

The transport groups said the RFID program is beneficial to them since it will not only simplify and speed up the registration process but will also “immediately diminish and eventually eradicate colorum operations.”

They also asked the SC to accept their opposition-in-intervention, saying that “to enjoin the RFID tag project from being implemented will do more harm than good.”

“There is an urgent need to solve the colorum problem. With the price of fuel increasing, there is pressure to increase transport fares. If the colorum vehicles can be drastically reduced, if not totally removed, from the streets, this pressure to increase transport fares will be mitigated, as the passenger load of legitimate franchise holders will increase, thus increasing their income,” the groups pointed out.