The Land Transportation Office (LTO) is under fire once again, as questions mount over how luxury vehicles tied to the Discaya family were able to secure registrations despite concerns about unpaid customs duties and taxes.
At the heart of the controversy is the LTO’s handling of online registration through its Land Transportation Management System (LTMS), which was designed to tighten safeguards but has instead become mired in loopholes and disputes with the Bureau of Customs (BOC).
Of the 12 luxury vehicles recently seized by the BOC, two — a 2024 Lincoln Navigator (Plate No. NHE 1576) and a 2024 Toyota Land Cruiser LC300 (Plate No. NKJ 7876) — were issued Certificates of Registration (CR) and Official Receipts (OR) during the term of current LTO chief Vigor D. Mendoza II.
This has sparked renewed scrutiny of whether LTO’s systems can reliably verify tax compliance before approving registrations.
The issue is not new. In May 2023, two Bugatti supercars slipped through registration using LTO’s old Stradcom IT system, sidestepping the LTMS that was meant to centralize and secure the process.
Critics say the agency has failed to resolve the IT overlap more than a year later, leaving room for questionable registrations to continue.
Customs officials have long argued that digital copies of payment documents should be uploaded exclusively to the LTMS for validation. But LTO has insisted on dual uploads to both the old and new systems — a policy that observers warn creates confusion and weakens safeguards.
A Department of Transportation (DOTr) memorandum issued in May 2024 had already called for stricter online protocols, including mandatory verification of original BOC payment records, biometric confirmation by regional directors within the LTMS workflow, and tighter compliance with prior registration rules.
