MANILA - The Land Transportation Office on Tuesday said it is open to a proposal to delay the implementation of its radio frequency identification (RFID) project to January 1, 2010.

LTO chief Arturo Lomibao said he has already proposed to the Department of Transportation and Communication to delay the mandatory installation of RFID tags on every vehicle in the country to January 1 and make RFID installation voluntary starting October 1.

He added, however, that all government vehicles must have RFID tags by November.

Several transport groups, meanwhile, urged LTO to pilot test the RFID tags in one city or municipality before rolling out a nationwide implementation.

Various groups earlier voiced their opposition to the LTO-RFID project, which was initially slated for implementation on October 1.

Former Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Ralph Recto said the RFID project did not seek clearance from the National Economic and Development Authority. Under existing laws, increases in fees and charges must go through NEDA evaluation to determine its reasonableness.

Given the added costs for millions of Filipinos, Recto said the LTO should be more careful in implementing such a project.He added that the LTO cannot "just ram through" the project without the consent of the NEDA Board, which is chaired by President Arroyo.

"Six million vehicles will be required to pay higher fees on vehicle registration yearly, and 100,000 to 150,000 new vehicles are registered yearly. Millions of citizens will be affected by the new fees, which further highlight the need for it to undergo the proper process," Recto said.

"In effect, whoever is implementing the project must be powerful enough to have the guts to bypass the President. If the project has its merits and is imbued with public interest, then there is no harm in subjecting it to the process. The discovery of its beneficial traits will surface during the evaluation phase," he added.

Bayan Muna party-list Rep. Teodoro Casiñosaid the P2.45 bilion RFID project has all the makings of a "midnight deal" for being both overpriced and failing to go under public bidding.

Under the project, all vehicles will be given stickers containing a microchip that stores vehicle information. The chip allows traffic enforcers to identify and know everything about a specific vehicle with the speed of electronic computing.

The LTO said motorists will pay a one-time tagging fee of P350 when they register their vehicles. The RFID tag is expected to last 10 years.

Casiño, however, said RFID tags only cost about $0.10 to $0.20 or about P10 each, based on a random check on the Internet. "Even if we double the price, it should still be cheaper than the P350 that LTO will be charging," he said.

He also questioned a notation on LTO memorandum circular 2009-11 that said the RFID tags will contain "other data deemed necessary", which he said violates the vehicle owner's right to privacy.