A LONE motorist staged a protest on Tuesday outside the Land Transportation Office in Cebu City, alleging that local officials have been "sitting on" his application for vehicle registration for three months now.
Retired chemical engineer Victor Quijano caught the attention of motorists passing by the LTO office along N. Bacalso Ave., between the Cebu South Bus Terminal and Cebu City Medical Center, as he carried a tarpaulin accusing the regional transport office as "corrupt."
Quijano said even though he is alone, he is not afraid to stand in front of the LTO-Central Visayas office for the entire day to protest the agency's alleged incompetence.
'Unintentional'
Alita Pulga, LTO-Central Visayas regional director, said it is not true that she intentionally sat on his papers.
Pulga told SunStar Cebu in a phone interview that they addressed Quijano's problem a few months back.
She said Quijano acquired a vehicle from a surplus car dealership in Cebu but he didn't know that the car he bought was registered in Zamboanga.
Thus, when Quijano attempted to renew his vehicle's registration this year, their office could not act on it because of Executive Order 156 which prohibits the entry of secondhand vehicles.
She said she felt sorry for Quijano and decided to call her colleagues in Zamboanga to facilitate the correction of some details in Quijano's vehicle registration.
LTO-Zamboanga Peninsula immediately acted on Pulga's request and forwarded his renewed vehicle registration to the LTO-Central Visayas.
But according to Pulga, when she tried to contact Quijano to inform him of what happened, the retired engineer did not answer his phone.
Pulga even instructed her secretary to keep calling Quijano, to no avail.
She said she was surprised that Quijano was already protesting outside her office.
Quijano was at the LTO office from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Tuesday. He said he will come back on Wednesday and stage a protest until his application is acted upon.
He also told SunStar Cebu that he sued the same office for not acting on his vehicle's registration a year ago. While he was able to secure his registration, the complaint he lodged is still with the Office of the Ombudsman-Visayas. (JKV/SunStar Cebu)