Vintage cars, jeepneys and the LTO

Atty. Jerome G. Neri
The Scrutineer

HOW often do we see a vintage car 40 years and older running on the streets? On very rare occasions. Last week I wrote about my grandfather’s Volkswagen Beetle that was completely restored, and I said although it is back to brand new condition, I will not drive it every day or even as a Sunday car. It will be a car that can be used for car meets and car shows. The main reason being that it is inconvenient to drive. No aircon, no power steering and it’s a manual transmission. It is completely incompatible with our traffic. I’m sure other vintage car owners have the same sentiment. They will not use their beloved vintage cars every day.

More often than not, most probably 99 percent of 40-year-old cars that are running are owned by car enthusiats who know how to take care and maintain their cars properly. This is the reason their old cars are still running. These cars are in better shape than a lot of cars running on our roads.

Now here comes the Land Transportation Office (LTO) with their traditional stupidity and incompetence. They issued Administrative Order RPC-2016-033 for the registration and recording of vintage motor vehicles. One of the provisions in the order limits the use of this vintage cars to weekends and holidays. Among the LTO’s contentions are that these vintage cars pollute and that removing them from the roads will ease the traffic. Stupid, stupid, stupid. No one sees a 40-year-old car on the streets every day. They are a very rare sight.

The Administrative Order describes a vintage car as “a vehicle manufactured at least 40 years prior to the current year or with a year model earlier than 1975, not a reproduction and which has been maintaned or restored to a condition in conformity with the manufacturer’s specification and appearance.”

Therefore, as long as I alter something in a vintage car that the condition does not conform with the manufacturer specification, I can use the car any day of the week. Does this mean if I install a wing of a Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution V in my grandfather’s restored 1963 Volkswagen Beetle, it now can be used every day?

I do not see the point of this regulation. Maybe I am the one who is stupid. This is like passing a law regulating the use of dial-up internet only on weekends to keep the landline phone lines traffic-free.
There seems to be so much space between the ears of our government officials. What happened to the smart ones? Where are they? Maybe the smart ones are too busy restoring vintage cars.

I see horse drawn tartanillas in some streets downtown, they run slow, they smell and they take a dump everywhere. Ahhh, but they can be used everyday because the horses are less than 40 years old.

Our streets have zero problems with vintage cars. Cars get dilapidated after 10 to 15 years and they do not last 40 years if not well taken care off. One of th most popular cars in 1990 was the boxy Nissan Sentra. It is hard to find one running on our roads today.

The vehicle that is causing traffic and pollution in our roads today are the jeepneys. Majority that I see don’t look roadworthy to me – they are just so dilapidated. These vehicles are what the LTO should concentrate on and regulate well. It is our mass transportation taken by majority of the people. Our people deserve to be safe and secure every time they travel.

LTO, did you bump your head?