A thick jungle for offroaders

These past few days, my social media news feed has been flooded with rants, particularly from the offroading community, over what they call unjust apprehensions by the Land Transportation Office.

I know some of these offroaders, and are familiar with some of their activities. These people are productive members of society who have been involved in rescue missions, medical outreach programs (yes, some of them are medical doctors), and distributing goods to calamity-stricken areas. Several lives have been saved because of their activities.

I just want to say that the ones who will be most impacted by any resolution would be the lives these offroaders reach out to—the disaster victims, indigenous peoples, endangered animals, virtually any living being who does not have direct access to well-paved roads.

I reached out to Land Transportation Office Director Francis Ray A. Almora on Oct. 16 (yesterday) regarding this. He disclosed that the LTO office is “always open for a dialogue.” He added: “We would like, however to reiterate that illegal modification does not cover only 4x4s. It is for all types of vehicles.”

Yesterday afternoon, the LTO office finally released a statement:

DOTr-LTO (Department of Transportation-Land Transportation Office) statement on the alleged apprehension of vehicle owners with all terrain tires

“On the alleged ‘arbitrary and subjective’ apprehension of all terrain tires by the Department of Transportation–Land Transportation Office (DOTr- LTO), the Agency denies having apprehended motor vehicles with these kinds of tires.

“However, the Agency stands by the law that it is supposed to implement.

“The apprehension of vehicles with illegal modifications are neither arbitrary nor subjective. The primordial objective of the apprehension of violators is to protect other road users.

“Modification of a motor vehicle was defined by Department Order No. 2010-32 dated 08 September 2010, with Subject: Harmonization of motor vehicle (MV) classifications of LTO and LTFRB. Section 5, Number 5.2 of the Order states that, “The modifications involving safety and environment shall not be allowed, such as the following: Axle modification; Chassis modification; Extended chassis/body; Additional siding of dump trucks; Extended overhang; Change of rim size; Modification of handle bar and muffler; and Reconfiguration of body dimension and design.

“The DOTr-LTO reiterates that it is only implementing an existing law.

“Nevertheless, the Agency will welcome recommendations and suggestions as it seeks to refine the guidelines further.”

I am sincerely hoping that the dialogue is set soon. We are a country prone to calamities. We have an offroading “bayanihan” community that has always been reliable.

It seems that the LTO is the thickest jungle that our offroaders will have to penetrate.