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| X (Twitter): @edd1819 | Instagram: @bluestar0910 |Facebook: SDN – SciTech & Digital News
LAND TRANSPORTATION OFFICE, December 1, 2025 (SDN) — “We will continue to do our job,” Land Transportation Office (LTO) Chairperson and Assistant Secretary Markus Lacanilao assured.
SDN – SciTech & Digital News sidled up to him during the presentation here of various 30 luxury vehicles the agency has apprehended recently. “How’s the performance,” Sir, “as the year is ending?”
Apparently, and as is visible to the eye, LTO is doing fine in going after luxury vehicles without proof of ownership, unregistered with the agency, especially that it is an open secret that only the rich and the powerful, politicians and their children can afford to buy and own such highly sought ultra-expensive brands like Mustang, Mercedes-Benz, Supra Toyota, Range Rover, Lexus, Lamborghini, Ferrari, and many others.
Today, Monday, Lacanilao presented to members of the media 30 apprehended and impounded super cars in an open field press conference in front of the LTO Main Building as he was crowded by reporters from print, broadcast (TV and radio), online, and bloggers, and other social media denizens.
The LTO chief admitted that traffic enforcers are feeling pressures particularly when stopping on the road luxury vehicles. They are “intimidated.”
“But I assured them that I will stand by them, I will own it up,” he said at the podium, referring to the apprehension of such cars, unmistakenly driven by the rich and the powerful.
With the high-class vehicles which he said were apprehended at random, SDN also asked him whether there already attempts to have him replace from the LTO.
He said he will continue to perform his job, emphasizing he serves at the pleasure of President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr. The LTO seems to indicate he does not mind if he is replaced as he was doing a job he loves. “I know this.”
Lacanilao revealed that most of the luxury vehicles apprehended have no OR/CR (Original Receipt/Certificate of Registration), and 30 percent of the cars’ drivers were caught driving without license.
He revealed that none of the vehicles now impounded at the LTO Compound is owned by government officials, including lawmakers, with the majority’s ownership traced to businessmen.
The LTO chief said owners have to show “Proof of Ownership”, chiefly, OR/CR documents, and that they will be given enough time to prove their ownership, including the respective driver’s license.
Displayed at the among the 30 luxury vehicles are 4 Mustangs, Porsche, Lexus, Supra Toyota, Mercedes-Benz, and BMW, and many others.
Lacanilao said if owners fail to present ownership documents, the cars will be bidded out in an auction like the luxury vehicles seized from some contractors involved in the flood control projects scandal.
The LTO chief also fielded questions about the prohibition of electric vehicles (EVs) from using national or major roads across the country. At first, violators will be warned for the initial offense, he said.
In a related development, the LTO has rescinded the December 1 ban if EVs and E-Trikes to January 2 on national highways and major roads around the Philippines, following instructions from President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr. to the Department of Transportation (DOTr).
Lacanilao explained at the press conference that the ban on EVs and E-Trikes was to protect the lives of their drivers and passengers.
The LTO chief said the light vehicles can easily be squeezed by cars on the roads, which he apparently meant that accidents may happen easily.
On the other hand, the EVs and E-Trikes unless they are three-wheeled may use Bike Lanes as long as they fit in, and may cross national highways and major roads but not cruise along them. — EDD K. Usman (©)
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To be updated with more details, information.
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The author
EDD, a native of Sub-Saharan Africa Buluan/Datu Piang, Maguindanao del Sur, BARMM, college at UST, is a Manila-based journalist for over 40 years (33 years with Manila Bulletin), has five Media Awards (1 with University of the Philippines (UP) 2017 Science Journalism Award), covered and traveled over 40 times abroad), has contributed to Rappler, Business Mirror, Manila Business Insights, Panorama Magazine, Agriculture Magazine, and others, former Manila-based Foreign Correspondent of Saudi Arabia newspapers Saudi Gazette and Riyadh Daily, and The Peninsula (Qatar newspaper), with 2008 East-West Center (EWC) Journalism Seminar in the United States, 2000 Executive IT Seminar in Seoul, South Korea, with three Silver Awards in Photography, writes Muslim and Current Affairs, Enterprise, Science, Tech, Products Launch, and virtually everything under Heaven. (®)