N.B. – This was published in Asian Correspondent (January 11, 8:00 p.m.) where I write a weekly column (“Philippine Fantasy”).
Why is there resistance in the Philippines to a technology that is widely used in many countries like South Korea?
Starting this year, the Land Transportation Office (LTO) requires the installation of radio frequency identification (RFID) tags in vehicles. Various transport and cause-oriented groups have called on the government to stop its implementation, arguing that the technology is being used to raise funds for the coming elections and to “spy on organizations perceived as left-leaning.”
Just like other countries, the Philippines requires an annual registration of vehicles. In the past, the LTO’s only requirements for vehicle registration are payment of the registration fee, a passing mark in emission testing and an insurance for the vehicle.
According to the LTO, vehicle owners will be charged an additional PhP350 (US$7.65) for RFID stickers which must be prominently displayed in the vehicle’s windshield. Through the introduction of the RFID technology, the LTO expects to generate an additional PhP2 billion ($43.74 million) in revenues.
How did the LTO arrive at this figure? Official data show that in 2008, there were 5,891,272 motor vehicles (MVs) registered with the LTO. Multiplying the number of MVs by 350, one gets 2,061,945,200. Considering an annual increase of 3.72% and 6.53% in 2007 and 2008, respectively, it is likely that the number of registered MVs in 2009 will reach six million so the income from RFID could be more than what is projected.
Interestingly, the fees collected by LTO for the registration of MVs in 2008 amounted to PhP785,492,574 (US$17.18 million), a mere 7.11% of the total revenue collections amounting to PhP11,048,015,054 (US$241.59 million).
In analyzing the argument of the Pinagkaisang Samahan ng mga Tsuper at Operator Nationwide (PISTON; Unified Association of Drivers and Operators Nationwide) and other groups that the funds from the RFID technology might be used in the May 2010 elections, it must be remembered that they are not referring to the total estimated PhP2 billion but mainly the collections from January to April.
As regards allegations that the Philippine government might use the RFID for surveillance, one only needs to be aware that the Soviet Union has used radio waves as early as 1945 to spy on its perceived enemies. For its part, the Allies during World War II used a similar technology like the transponder during World War II to identify friendly or hostile aircraft.
But what cannot be denied is that other countries are using RFID to facilitate cashless transactions. In South Korea, for example, the T-money (described as “pre-paid RF smartcard embedded with CPU to enable self-calculation”) is being used in public transportation like trains, buses and taxis. The T-money basic card can be bought by anybody over-the-counter so it cannot be used by the Korean government to monitor the movement of a specific person.
The RFID has helped South Korea manage its transportation system. For example, it is able to allocate bus routes and control bus intervals. The discounts provided by T-money (e.g., a subway fare of KRW1,000 amounts to only KRW950 when using T-money) also reportedly help motivate Koreans to take public transportation.
Then again, the situation in South Korea greatly differs in the Philippines. The concern of cause-oriented groups as regards the RFID can hardly be called subjective paranoia.
President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo who is currently running for a seat in the House of Representatives is deeply unpopular and not trusted by majority of Filipinos. Aside from being widely regarded to be pushing for charter change to perpetuate herself in power, she is being held responsible for the increasing number of extrajudicial killings, abductions and other forms of human rights violations.
Under her watch, the Human Security Act (HSA) was passed in 2007 which is widely perceived to be repressive as it allows, among others, the wiretapping of conversations and the freezing of bank accounts of people suspected to be involved in terrorism, a term so nebulous that legitimate protests may be construed as such.
It is in this context that a supposedly beneficial technology becomes a bane to human rights, particularly a person’s right to privacy. No wonder the RFID is being met with opposition in the Philippines as other countries embrace it to improve the people’s lives and livelihood.
Note: US$1.00 = PhP45.68 (based on OANDA’s Currency Converter as of January 11, 2010)