LTO, LTFRB Regional Offices in Cordillera, CARAGA Officially Open

With the appointment of Francis Ray Almora to the Land Transportation Office (LTO) and Atty. Laird Dionel Urbanozo to the Land Transportation Franchising Regulatory Board (LTFRB), the agencies were formally elevated into regional offices not only in the Cordillera Administrative Region but also in the Autonomous Region for Muslim Mindanao in CARAGA.

From his post as the former director of the Law Enforcement Office at the LTO Central Office in Metro Manila, Almora will now serve as the acting director of an LTO-Cordillera regional office independent of the Department of Transportation (DOTr). He will be under the command of the LTO Central Office instead of DOTr-Cordillera, which was the old setup.

"I would like to enjoin all so we can work to have an efficient working (regional) office," Almora said during the turnover ceremony, where he received the office's standard logo from Robert Allan Santiago whom Almora will be replacing.

Almora and Urbanozo took over Robert Allan Santiago, recently the officer-in-charge assistant regional director of the DOTr-Cordillera, with Almora heading the LTO and Urbanozo the LTFRB.

Urbanozo was not present at the turnover event.

LTO-Cordillera assistant regional director (ARD) Jennilyn Avelino said the creation of the LTO and LTFRB in the Cordillera and CARAGA, two administrative regions created by Executive Order 220 in 1987, was made possible when DOTr Secretary Arthur Tugade signed Department Order 2018-003.

Avelino added that while the LTO exists in Cordillera and CARAGA, these functioned unlike the other offices in the other regions and were under the defunct Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) as mandated by EOs 125, 125-A and 226, all signed in 1987 by late President Corazon Aquino.

The LTFRB became an agency under the DOTC in 2002, and a manager was appointed who is equal to an assistant director.

With Tugade's order taking effect, the DOTr practically ceased to exist in both regions with the personnel moved either to the LTO or the LTFRB-Cordillera.