LTO chief hits back at Cebu mayor

CEBU CITY – The regional director of the Land Transportation Office has strongly criticized Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña and told him to leave the LTO-7 out of politics.

“If he (Mayor Osmeña) wants to play politics, leave LTO out of it because I know how to do my job and I'm not telling him on how to do his job,” Director Victor Caindec said, adding, it is better for the mayor to first solve the problems of Cebu City before intervening in LTO’S business.

“If he wants, he'll manage the LTO and I'll manage Cebu City. It's better if he will fix Cebu City’s problems on flooding, traffic, and garbage. Leave LTO alone. Do not politicize this agency. We are trying to de-politicize it,” Caindec said after Mayor Osmeña criticized the LTO on his Facebook page on July 10, saying the agency is not doing its job well.

Part of the post reads: “LTO, I have already paid for the fines of 2 motorists who don’t have registration because you haven’t processed their registration. You are punishing them for not having something that you failed to give. Only government is capable of such logic. Get your acts together please.”

Caindec said there is no special treatment for government officials in the processing of driver’s licenses or vehicle registrations, adding that LTO even has 13,774 backlogs in registration. “It is not a special treatment to local government units. We call it as objectivity of process. That's why we have our own citizen's charter,” he said.

He said the mayor should send someone to the LTO and directly talk to them if there are problems, and not post his complaints on social media. He said Mayor Osmeña is the only government official in the entire Central Visayas region who has complained and made noise about the LTO.

Caindec clarified that he has no plans to join politics, saying: “Politics is not my cup of tea.”