According to Stradcom's PR man who was interviewed this morning, this project was bid out by the DOTC/LTO sometime in 1997 and was eventually awarded to Stradcom.

The host raised some very valid questions which were, unfortunatley, not answered for lack of time, specifically:

1. If bidding of the Project was conducted more than 10 years ago, why is it being implemented only now?

2. Considering the rapid changes in technology, wouldn't the RFID be considered as completely obsolete in the next 5 or 10 years? Meaning, motor vehicle owners would still be paying year in and year out for something which would be totally rendered useless or irrelevant?

I think some of the things which still need to be cleared up are:

1. What information is stored in the RFID sticker and who has the authority access to them?
2. Is the LTO completely eliminating the issuance of paper CPCN's/Franchise in favor of the RFID stickers? Are they even tamper-proof?
3. The TV/Radio commercials claim that this will reduce colorum, traffic and smoke-belching, of all things. How so? Does it prevent use of the motor vehicle or does it merely identify the vehicle as non-compliant?

I think one of the obvious flaws here is that the ID tags store only the information regarding the registered owner of the vehicle and not necessarily the person driving it. So, if someone else happens to be driving your car at the time of an accident, you may be held equally responsible as the driver (if they are even able to idenitify and detain him).