FLAG Maharlika, an advocacy organization, urged the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) to investigate the Land Transportation Office’s (LTO) driver's license system, which is allegedly being run outside the country by a German information technology (IT) firm.
In a May 19, 2026 letter to NBI Director Melvin Matibag, a copy of which was obtained by The Manila Times, Salvador Piamonte, head of community affairs for Flag Maharlika, raised major sovereignty and national security concerns over the alleged foreign-operated access to the country's public identity infrastructure.
In an interview, Piamonte told members of the Quezon City Press Club that his group’s request was based on an Ombudsman resolution citing an internal LTO Management Information Division (MID) report.
The LTO’s own technical experts explicitly warned that IT contractor Dermalog, a German-based company, has full "access and control" over the five-year Driver’s License Inventory and Printing Application Modules.
According to the LTO-MID report, the system poses a national security threat because the foreign contractor can secretly print Philippine driver's license cards outside the country at any given time without LTO’s knowledge.
The group mentioned a “ridiculous system flaw” wherein local LTO employees could not even transfer physical card inventory from one district to another within the Philippines without asking a Dermalog employee based in Malaysia to do it remotely.
“Our national identity system is compromised. Why are we allowing a foreign-based entity to hold the keys to the data and licenses of millions of Filipino drivers?” Piamonte said.
“This is a direct slap to the face of our national sovereignty,” he added.
Piamonte said his group wants the NBI’s Cybercrime and Counter-Intelligence divisions to look into potential violations of Republic Act 10175, or the Cybercrime Prevention Act, specifically Illegal Access and System Interference, and check if public officials’ administrative failures facilitated this anomaly under RA 3019, or the Anti-Graft Law.
He said a parallel complaint is being sent to the National Privacy Commission regarding data privacy violations.
The Office of the Solicitor General has already petitioned the Supreme Court to nullify the multibillion LTO-Dermalog IT contract, renewing its push for a temporary restraining order, he added.
The Times tried to reach the IT company for comment but received no reply. Meanwhile, an unnamed LTO official denied such a practice, but added that the leadership should address the matter.
