ZAMBOANGA CITY (Mindanao Examiner / 04 Nov) - Lawyer Aminola P. Abaton, regional director of the Land Transportation Office for Western Mindanao, continues to draw praises from the public because of the agency’s remarkable performance the past two years.
Abaton, who has been in the LTO for almost 3 years now, introduced a lot of changes that resulted in the agency’s being cited as one of the best in the country.
Last year, the LTO in Western Mindanao, collected almost P178 million in revenues from about P159 million in 2004. Abaton said the increase in collection was mainly due to the concerted efforts and teamwork of all employees under the regional office.
The LTO in Western Mindanao covers the operations in Zamboanga City, Zamboanga del Sur, Zamboanga del Norte and Zamboanga Sibugay provinces and the islands of Tawi-Tawi and Jolo in the Sulu Archipelago.
Last year, the LTO had more than 148,000 vehicle registrations.
Abaton was also largely credited for the LTO’s good public perception. “We are only doing our jobs here. There is no now who can claim credits for all these praises, but our hardworking employees. We are public servants,” he said.
Employees bragged about 5 new vehicles for the agency’s operations. LTO in the past had only two dilapidated vehicles.
But Abaton said more equipment is arriving soon. He said he was expecting three generators, eight motorcycles and an emission testing machine for motor vehicles registration and these would be distributed to different district offices in Western Mindanao, he said.
Employees said the LTO regional office in Zamboanga City now has new reception areas for the public and a more organized system of transacting business in LTO.
They said that corrupt employees are now gone and fixers had been banned in all LTO provincial offices. Gone also were civilians who carry LTO identification cards bought from corrupt officials.
From a government agency tainted with corruption and anomalies, employees now said that the LTO is one of the most respected in the region.
“All those changes that people see now are all because of one man; and that is none other than our regional director, (Aminola) Abaton and our Boss Anneli (Lontoc). We are now proud to say that we all belong to one big family; a family of honest people dedicated to serve the public and nothing else,” a female employee, who identified herself only as Heart, told the Mindanao Examiner.
Anneli R. Lontoc headed the LTO until President Gloria Arroyo has appointed her this week to the Department of Transportation and Communication as Undersecretary and named a former police general Reynaldo Berroya.
Like Abaton, Lontoc was largely credited for steering the LTO to as a corrupt-free and service-oriented agency under the DOTC. (Mindanao Examiner)
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Another milestone on Mindanao
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