THERE’S a reason we don’t hand out driver’s licenses like flyers at a mall — or at least, there should be. But in Western Visayas, the unsettling truth is that for years, some driving schools and licensing processes have turned a blind eye to actual competence, reducing road safety to a paperwork game.
As reported by this paper over the weekend, the Land Transportation Office (LTO) Region 6 is finally saying what many have known all along: too many people get behind the wheel without truly knowing how to drive — or worse, without fully understanding the deadly responsibility that comes with it. And now, we’re all paying the price in mangled cars and motorcycles, ruined lives, and rising road fatalities.
LTO-6’s recent suspension of 14 erring driving schools across Panay and Negros is a good policy move — but it is also a wake-up call. These schools were reportedly issuing certificates without properly educating students or observing course completion limits. Translation: licenses handed out with little regard for whether the person receiving them can safely operate a vehicle.
This culture of shortcuts is deadly. A driver’s license isn’t a souvenir — it is supposed to be a proof of readiness, a minimum guarantee that the person holding it can navigate the road without turning it into a war zone. Yet when certificates are faked, exams are skipped, and “fixers” thrive, we end up with drivers who see traffic signs as decorations and pedestrian lanes as mere suggestions.
The public must also demand higher standards — not just from LTO, but from themselves. Parents, for example, must stop treating a driver’s license as a “coming-of-age” gift for their teenage children. Aspiring drivers must take the process seriously and resist the temptation to use fixers or pay for shortcuts. A society that tolerates cheating in the licensing system shouldn’t be surprised when that culture of carelessness plays out in traffic accidents and hit-and-run cases.
Reforming the system means more than suspending schools after the damage is done. It means building a licensing process that cannot be gamed. There must be real testing, real training, and real consequences for both applicants and the institutions that enable incompetence. Transparency is key — applicants should know the process is standardized, and the public should know that only qualified individuals are getting through.
We also need stronger monitoring mechanisms — perhaps digital logs, audit trails, and regular surprise inspections. Corruption, once embedded in the system, doesn’t go away quietly. It must be rooted out with determination and follow-through.
The LTO-6 has taken a firm first step. Now it must continue walking — or driving — the long road toward a licensing system built on merit, not shortcuts. Because the road should not be a place where inexperience hides behind a laminated card. It should be a space shared by people who earned the right to be there — and who know exactly what that responsibility means.
