Manila Bulletin

LTFRB has no power to apprehend, impound, dispose of colorum vehicles – Remulla

By JEFFREY DAMICOG

The Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) has no power to apprehend, impound and dispose of colorum vehicles, the Department of Justice (DOJ) said.

In a legal opinion, Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin C. Remulla said: “It is the Land Transportation Office (LTO) and the Traffic Management Unit of the Philippine National Police (PNP) which are authorized to enforce traffic rules and regulations under Section 4(5) of Republic Act (RA) No. 4136, otherwise known as the ‘Land Transportation and Traffic Code’, as amended, and Section 35(b)(8) of RA No. 6975, otherwise known as the ‘Department of the Interior and Local Government Act of 1990’, as amended, respectively.”

“We advise that LTFRB has no power to apprehend, impound and dispose of colorum vehicles. Its authority extends only in coordination with other government agencies in the apprehension, impounding and disposal of such vehicles,” Remulla said.

The legal opinion was sought by former Department of Transportation (Dotr) secretary Arthur P. Tugade in a letter sent by the latter last March 24.

Remulla noted that Tugade wanted to respond to the Liga ng Transportasyon at Operators sa Pilipinas (LTOP) and the National Federation Transport Cooperatives (NFTC) letters that questioned Dotr’s position that LTFRB has the power to apprehend and impound colorum vehicles.

The justice secretary said the functions and powers of the LTFRB is already enumerated in Section 5 of Executive Order (EO) No. 202.

“The law does not contain any express provision which authorizes LTFRB to apprehend, impound and dispose of colorum vehicles,” he said.

“If there was no express grant of authority to apprehend, impound and dispose of colorum vehicles, could such power be inferred from other provisions of E.O. No. 202? The answer to this is in the negative,” he pointed out.

Contrary to the position of the Dotr, Remulla said that the LTFRB cannot also use Joint Administrative Order (JAO) No. 4014-01 as affirmation of LTFRB’S enforcement power.

“With respect to the position that the power to apprehend/impound colorum vehicles may be inferred from JAO No. 2014-01, we reiterate that without any provision of law granting such power to LTFRB, it has no authority to exercise such powers. Administrative issuances must be in harmony with the law upon which such issuances are based,” he stressed.

National News

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2023-06-08T07:00:00.0000000Z

2023-06-08T07:00:00.0000000Z

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