Here in the Philippines, it’s an open secret that anyone could get their driver’s license, regardless of their driving skill or experience, for a fee. The same goes for vehicle registration, where, despite the numerous regulations in place, a lot of vehicles still get registered even with the absence of roadworthiness checks. Again, for a fee.

The prevalence of unskilled or untrained drivers, alongside vehicles that are not roadworthy are key contributing factors to the numerous road crashes occurring nationwide.

Echoing his sentiment earlier this month, Transportation Secretary Vince Dizon acknowledges that there is indeed a deeply-rooted, institutionalized problem that needs to be resolved.

 “The President’s message is that we have to change this, and he gave his green light to go all-out to reform the broken system. The first step is really to acknowledge that the system is not working,” said Secretary Dizon during today's meeting with road safety advocates.

Several contributing factors to road crashes were raised during the meeting. But according to Secretary Dizon, some are “low-hanging fruits” that can be fixed (hopefully) within a short period, such as the “non-appearance” schemes during driver’s license medical check-ups, application examination, vehicle emission, and roadworthiness tests.

The DOTr also said that it would review the existing practical driving tests as well as the instructional practices in theoretical driving courses, which the agency deems as inconsistent, poor, and no longer aligned with current international standards.

Other issues that were raised include license conversion and renewal loopholes, inadequate coverage or fraud in insurance policies, lenient traffic violation penalties, and ineffective traffic enforcement.

The DOTr also said that it is advancing the adoption of the Philippine Road Safety Action Plan 2023-2028 through its five-pronged strategy to reduce road crash fatalities and injuries.