MANILA: The Land Transportation Office (LTO) has apprehended 529,578 motorists in 2023.

In a statement Friday, LTO chief, Assistant Secretary Vigor Mendoza II said some of the most common violations were on the Clean Air Act or the Republic Act (RA) 8749, Seatbelt Law Act or RA 8750 and overloading.

A total of 23,614 motor vehicles were also impounded by the LTO last year, an increase of 47 percent compared to 2022.

Mendoza instructed LTO regional directors to maintain the visibility of LTO enforcers on the roads and announced the procurement of more motor vehicles for its traffic enforcers.

‘The mere presence of our uniformed personnel on the roads already encourages motorists to observe discipline. So we want the presence of our personnel on the road further intensified because observance of traffic discipline translates to road safety,’ he said.

He urged motorists to follow traffic laws and other road safety regulations.

He said the LTO’s ‘no registration, no travel’ policy will continue this year to
push for the registration of the estimated 24.7 million unregistered motor vehicles in the country.

Vehicle registration, he said, is important for road safety as it is one of the best ways to check the road worthiness of vehicles.

‘As much as possible, ayaw natin na may mahuhuling violators dahil may kasama lagi itong multa na dagdag gastos sa ating mga kababayan. Subalit kailangan nating paigtingin ang ating kampanya para sa disiplina sa daan dahil ang nakasalalay dito ay ang kaligtasan ng lahat (As much as possible, we don’t want to apprehend violators because this comes with penalties which is additional cost to the public. But we need to intensify our campaign for road discipline because everyone’s safety depends on this),’ he said.

Source: Philippines News Agency

TACLOBAN: The Department of Transportation (DOTr) has allocated PHP75 million for the expansion of three ports in Northern Samar province for this year, aimed at improving access to island towns from the mainland.

The fund under the 2023 appropriations will finance the expansion of ports in the towns of Allen, Mapanas, and San Jose in Northern Samar, the provincial government announced on Friday.

Each port has an allocation of PHP25 million.

“This is a big thing for our economic development since barges, commercial vessels carrying supplies for our infrastructure projects will pass through here. In these areas, we also concentrate on copra buying and copra supplying going to Quezon province,” said Northern Samar Governor Edwin Ongchuan in a statement.

The provincial government issued the statement following Jan. 4 meeting among DOTr officials, Governor Ongchuan, Vice Governor Clarence Dato, and Mapanas town Mayor Ronn Michael Tejano.

DOTr Undersecretary for Maritime Elmer Sarmiento and Ongchuan also sign
ed a memorandum of agreement at the DOTr main office on the same day.

Tejano, meanwhile, has reiterated his request to DOTr for the construction of Pambujan Domestic Airport in Pambujan town and the rehabilitation and improvement of the Lighthouse in Batag Island, Laoang, Northern Samar. The department has yet to respond to the request of the local executive.

Source: Philippines News Agency

Antique: The Department of Education (DepEd) Schools Division of Antique proposed an extension of class hours in schools that suspended classes due to power interruptions for learners to cope with missed lessons.

A total of 118 schools from the local government units of Hamtic, Tobias Fornier, and Tibiao suspended classes since Jan. 4 upon the orders of their mayors due to the outage, data from the DepEd regional office showed.

‘School principals and teachers are urged to hold class hour extension so the learners could catch up with their lessons,’ Dr. Evelyn Remo, DepEd Antique chief of Schools Governance and Operations Division, said in an interview on Friday.

She added they don’t want teachers and learners to hold catch-up classes during weekends, so extending class hours or holding classes during break time will be their options.

The extension may vary depending on the number of hours missed by the learners.

‘There had already been a big learning gap among the learners due to the coronavirus disease
2019 so the principals and teachers are urged to come up with plans to ensure the continuity of learning despite the challenges,’ Remo said.

Source: Philippines News Agency

MANILA: Department of Energy (DOE) Secretary Raphael Lotilla on Friday reiterated the agency’s support to revisit the franchise of the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP), following the three-day power outage in Western Visayas that started on Jan. 2.

In a press conference in Taguig City, Lotilla said the DOE will recommend to the Congress the separation and transfer of systems operation function from the NGCP so that the company can focus on delivering its transmission network projects.

The DOE is blaming the NGCP for the power outage in the Panay grid as the system operator was not able to immediately act on the power disturbance due to the trip offs of the Panay Energy Development Corp. (PEDC) Units 1 and 2 as well as the Palm Concepcion Power Corp. (PCPC) Unit 1, which also affected the delivery of power supply of other generation facilities in Visayas to the grid.

‘The Independent Electricity Market Operator of the Philippines (IEMOP) has pointed out that there was a two-hour window wh
en the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines could have proactively called on the distribution utilities and electric cooperatives in Panay to reduce their load in order to prevent a subsystem-wide collapse,’ Lotilla said.

The DOE chief added that the island-wide blackout was preventable.

DOE Assistant Secretary Mario Marisagan said that as of 11:33 a.m. Friday, the PCPC unit has stabilized and the manual load dropping will no longer be needed.

This means the grid has started to resume power services down to household and commercial consumers in Western Visayas.

Marisagan said full power restoration on the island is possible within the day.

Moreover, aside from segregating the system operation function from NGCP, the DOE is also recommending to Congress to allow the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) to impose administrative penalties on the transmission concessionaire.

The proposed fee is at PHP2 million per day of violation or non-compliance with regulatory rules or 1 percent of the cost of the
delayed project based on the ERC-approved project cost, whichever is higher.

It is also proposing to review the tax privilege of the NGCP of paying only 3 percent of franchise tax in lieu of all other national and local taxes.

‘We will exert all efforts to exact full accountability for any failures in the delivery of the services expected from NGCP as the transmission concessionaire and the country’s biggest monopoly,’ Lotilla said.

Amend or scrap

Camarines Sur Rep. Luis Raymund Villafuerte Jr. agreed that Congress might have to amend NGCP’s franchise agreement or scrap it in favor of a more suitable transmission concessionaire for the government to deliver cheaper, more stable and accessible electricity to consumers.

He said latest power outage in Western Visayas highlights the need to accelerate the interconnection of the country’s islands via the national power grid, which is operated by the NGCP.

Villafuerte said NGCP’s failure to keep up with its up with its transmission development and interconnec
tivity program for the country is standing in the way of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s goal of “achieving 100 percent household electrification by 2028.’

He cited government data showing that the 68 delayed transmission projects covered 36 projects in Luzon, another 21 in the Visayas, and 11 more in Mindanao-with a combined PHP231 billion-worth of supposed investments by NGCP between 2009 and 2019.

He said the outcome of the DOE’s comprehensive performance audit of NGCP may guide Congress on how best to achieve stable, adequate and affordable electricity nationwide.

The legislature, he said, could look into proposing an amendatory law to Electric Power Industry Reform Act of 2001 or Republic Act (RA) 9136, alterations to the NGCP franchise beneficial to consumers and against regulatory capture, or a change of concessionaire.

‘DOE’s performance review of NGCP may help guide us lawmakers on what reforms to pursue as regards this transmission consortium’s concession agreement, in light of crippling power
outages believed caused by its failure to fully expand as committed its nationwide transmission system on which gencos (generation companies) and DUs (distribution utilities) depend on to deliver electricity to our people,’ he said.

Source: Philippines News Agency

MANILA: The Sandiganbayan ruled to allow a witness to take the stand remotely by videoconferencing against a former director general of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) who is facing graft charges.

In a resolution by presiding justice Amparo Cabotaje-Tang dated Jan. 3, the anti-graft court’s Third Division hearing the graft charges against Nela Charade Puno granted the prosecution’s motion to allow Dr. Farrah-Arsenia Agustin-Bunch to testify through videoconferencing.

The charges involved the FDA’s order for the closure of a “natural medical center” in Tarlac province which the agency said was selling unregistered health products.

The court said the prosecution proved that the presentation of the proposed witness is covered by the Supreme Court guidelines on the conduct of videoconferencing.

Among the instances allowed is when a litigant or witness is an overseas Filipino or Filipino residing abroad or temporarily outside the Philippines.

The prosecution said Bunch will testify on the “undue injury
that she suffered as a result of the precipitate action of the accused Puno” on Jan. 17.

The prosecution was directed to coordinate with the Philippine Consulate General in Houston, Texas to ensure the appearance of Bunch.

Source: Philippines News Agency

MANILA: The Sandiganbayan ruled to allow a witness to take the stand remotely by videoconferencing against a former director general of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) who is facing graft charges.

In a resolution by presiding justice Amparo Cabotaje-Tang dated Jan. 3, the anti-graft court’s Third Division hearing the graft charges against Nela Charade Puno granted the prosecution’s motion to allow Dr. Farrah-Arsenia Agustin-Bunch to testify through videoconferencing.

The charges involved the FDA’s order for the closure of a “natural medical center” in Tarlac province which the agency said was selling unregistered health products.

The court said the prosecution proved that the presentation of the proposed witness is covered by the Supreme Court guidelines on the conduct of videoconferencing.

Among the instances allowed is when a litigant or witness is an overseas Filipino or Filipino residing abroad or temporarily outside the Philippines.

The prosecution said Bunch will testify on the “undue injury
that she suffered as a result of the precipitate action of the accused Puno” on Jan. 17.

The prosecution was directed to coordinate with the Philippine Consulate General in Houston, Texas to ensure the appearance of Bunch.

Source: Philippines News Agency