Photo Courtesy of LTO-7
CEBU CITY, Philippines—The Land Transportation Office in Central Visayas (LTO-7) has resumed its free scholarships for the Theoretical Driving Course (TDC).
LTO-7 Director Victor Caindec said the TDC was halted due to Typhoon Odette. It resumed on Thursday, March 17, 2022.
Barangay Tungkop in Minglanilla town was among the first to benefit from the scholarship with 289 TDC scholars enrolled on Thursday.
“We have launched in Tungkop, Minglanilla in the Southern Part of the Province and we will be going back to Cebu City to offer the same free scholarships,” said the director.
Caindec also announced the start of the TDC Malasakit Program in the lowland Barangays in Cebu City.
“We are happy to announce that on Monday, March 21, we will be launching the TDC Malasakit Program in Barangay Tisa, in Cebu City. We can now start giving these scholarships to the lowland areas in the City,” he said.
The director said that Barangay Tisa has long been requesting for an allocation of the free TDC scholarships.
“We are allocating 1,000 slots for Tisa knowing they are one of the densely populated urban areas in the South, daghan pud kaayo diha og habal-habal drivers nga wala’y lisensya, this is one way of helping them,” he added.
In the last quarter of 2021, LTO-7 has also partnered with the village chiefs of the mountain barangays in Cebu City to address the key issues affecting road safety in the highland areas.
As of March 17, LTO-7 has issued a total of 6,786 TDC certificates in Central Visayas since it was launched in 2020.
This is equivalent to P23.7-million worth of TDC scholarships in an average tuition value of P3,500 per TDC scholarship from the private driving schools.
In 2021, LTO-7 has issued a total of 5,339 certificates through its TDC Malasakit Program.
As of March 17, 2022, LTO-7 has also issued a total of 576 TDC certificates while in 2020, a total of 871 certificates were issued.
LTO-7 is also set to continue its TDC Malasakit Program in Talisay City, where it started in December of 2021.
Under the LTO Memorandum Circular 2019-2176, a mandatory 15-hour TDC must be undertaken before an individual can get their student-driver permit.
In August 2020, LTO 7 launched the TDC Malasakit Program through their Driver’s Education Center. Since then, they have with partnered the local government units to cater to the grassroots level.
/bmjo
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