WITH the recent appointment of Francis Ray Almora to the Land Transportation Office (LTO) and lawyer Laird Dionel Urbanozo to the Land Transportation Franchising Regulatory Board (LTFRB), both agencies have been formally elevated into regional offices, not only in the Cordillera Administrative Region but also in the Autonomous Region for Muslim Mindanao in Caraga.

Department of Transportation and Railways (DOTr) Secretary Arthur Tugade earlier ordered the two regions to have its own office.

LTO chief Edgar Galvante who was present during the turnover ceremonies in Baguio City for the new LTO and LTFRB directors for Cordillera said this would give LTO and LTFRB specific and particular tasks as mandated by their functions.

“There will be improvements in whatever LTO is doing in this part of the country because we feel that in order to comply with the instructions of the President, in order to comply with instructions of the Secretary of the Department of Transportation, we need to do some more given the services that is expected of us of our constituents,” Galvante said.

As former director of the law enforcement office at the LTO Central Office in Metro Manila, Almora will now serve as the acting director of an LTO-Cordillera office.

Almora will be under the command of the LTO Central Office instead of DOTr-Cordillera, which was the old setup.

“I would like to enjoin all so we can work to have an efficient working (regional) office,” Almora said during the turnover ceremony.

LTO-Cordillera assistant regional director (ARD) Jennilyn Avelino said the creation of the LTO and LTFRB in the Cordillera and Caraga, two administrative regions created by Executive Order 220 in 1987, was made possible when DOTr Secretary Arthur Tugade signed Department Order 2018-003.

Avelino added while the LTO exists in Cordillera and Caraga, these functioned unlike the other offices in the other regions and were under the defunct Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) as mandated by EOs 125, 125-A and 226, all signed in 1987 by late President Corazon Aquino.

The LTFRB became an agency under the DOTC in 2002, and a manager was appointed who is equal to an assistant director.