LTO wants more breathalyzers

The Land Transportation Office (LTO) is seeking to procure new breathalyzer as part of the strict law enforcement aimed against drunk driving. LTO chief Vigor Mendoza II said on Sunday that the agency needs more breathalyzerfor the use of traffic and law enforcers.

Currently, the LTO is still awaiting for the final assessment on what remained of the 756 units of breathalyzer that were procured in 2015 and 2017. Based on the agency’s initial assessment, only 288 of the 756 units could be fixed and recalibrated.

According to Mendoza, the LTO is currently conducting a review if it would be more practical to buy new breathalyzer than have them fixed and recalibrated. He assured that if the agency would proceed in purchasing new breathalyzer, the procurement would be transparent. “I will make sure that the breathalyzer we will buy will be the lowest in price, but are still under the specifications and quality,” Mendoza said.

The presence of the defective breathalyzers was revealed during the Aug. 21 hearing of the Senate committee on public services on the proposed Fair Traffic Apprehension Act. According to committee chair Sen. Raffy Tulfo, the LTO-procured breathalyzers were way expensive compared with the same item retail price of the item in the United States, which cost P5,000 to P14,000 each. —DEXTER CABALZA