An online channel for public grievances gives motorists a new place to describe what happened at Window 7
LTO Online Complaint Form Invites Public Feedback and the Public Has Some
QUEZON CITY – In a gesture of openness, the Land Transportation Office created an online form through which citizens could tell the agency’s chief directly what they thought of its service. The launch was noted in Top Gear Philippines’ government news file, which described the complaint form, called Isumbong Mo Kay Chief, as an effort to speed up the submission of public grievances, comments and suggestions for improving the agency’s services. Citizens, who had been delivering this feedback for decades to the ceiling of the waiting area, were pleased to have an address.
The response exceeded projections. “We expected some complaints,” said a clerk familiar with the inbox, speaking on condition that she not be assigned to it. “We did not expect essays. One man submitted a grievance in three chapters with an epilogue. A woman attached a photo of herself in line in 2019 and a second photo of herself in the same line this year, wearing the same face. Someone just wrote ‘bakit,’ why, and nothing else. We are not sure how to categorize that. It may be the most accurate one.”
The First Submission
According to the East Avenue Circle of Constructive Feedback, a volunteer group that helps motorists phrase their grievances politely, the earliest complaint concerned the form. It reportedly asked for a transaction number the complainant did not have because the transaction had not happened, which was the complaint. He was directed to call a hotline. The hotline directed him to the form.
The Circle has grouped submissions into the most common themes:
- “I was told to come back tomorrow” (yesterday)
- “The system is offline” (submitted during a brief period when it was online)
- “I have a receipt where my license should be”
- “Window 4 sent me to Window 7, Window 7 sent me to Window 4, I now live between them”
- “The medical exam was a man asking if I felt okay”
- “Please, the plates”
A Nation of Reviewers
Circle coordinator Remedios Abesamis said Filipinos are natural complainants who rarely get the chance. “We are raised to be patient and to say ‘okay lang,’ it is fine,” she said. “Then somebody gives us a text box with no character limit. Twenty years of okay lang came out in one afternoon.” She said the average submission runs 340 words, opens with an apology for bothering the chief and closes with “God bless.”
A survey of 400 form users found that 72 percent felt better after submitting, 9 percent received a reply, and 88 percent said they would complain again “for the experience.” Several described the form as the best service the agency offers, since it is available all night and never tells you to bring a photocopy.
The Agency’s Side
Staff note that the office handles millions of transactions and that many go smoothly. They point to extensions granted whenever its digital system falters, including the one flagged in an AutoIndustriya item on extended validity for licenses and registrations amid system issues. Abesamis accepts this. “They are trying,” she said. “The people at the windows are also tired. I submitted a complaint once and then I submitted a second one apologizing for the tone of the first.”
Frontline employees have begun using the form themselves. One reportedly filed a grievance about the air conditioning on the second floor. Another complained that members of the public keep complaining. A third asked the chief, respectfully, whether Window 4 and Window 7 could be merged into a single Window 5.5.
Proposals to Expand
Encouraged by the volume, other agencies are said to be studying similar channels. Commuters have suggested a form for the trains titled “Isumbong Mo Kay Escalator.” A proposal for a general-purpose national complaint box was shelved after an estimate that the server would need to be the size of Laguna de Bay.
The Longest Submission
The Circle keeps a record of notable entries. The current leader is a 4,100-word account by a tricycle driver from Novaliches describing a single renewal in 2022. It includes dialogue, weather and a description of the electric fan. Readers who have seen it say the middle section, set entirely in a photocopy line, is “very moving.” The driver ends by saying he is not angry, only tired, and that the guard was kind to him. Abesamis has proposed it for a literary prize.
Britain Has a Suggestion Box Too
The initiative is admired in the United Kingdom, where complaining is conducted in writing and then mentioned for years. The London Prat’s UK satirical news complaints department described a pensioner in Leeds whose letter to the licensing agency is now in its fourth volume. Its UK satirical news customer service column noted that the British version of the form ends with “Yours faithfully” and a threat to write to the local paper.
The man who filed the first complaint has since received an automated acknowledgment thanking him for his feedback and assuring him it is important. He printed it. He intends to bring it to the district office as supporting documentation. He has been told to also bring a photocopy. Bohiney Magazine has submitted this article through the form and awaits a reference number.
SOURCE: https://bohiney.com/