A few years ago I my friend from the UK has been staying with me in Davao City. Its true to say that when he purchased a motorbike from a friend and owner of a motorbike shop here in Davao City, I was suspicious of the anomalies in the paperwork, as the six month old second hand bike with one previous owner seemed to have had a two year “missing history” when you tried to match the LTO paperwork.

LTO said the bike would have to “pass” a physical check to sell, this was done at another location in Davao

Anyway being the legal owner, it was not long before this bike became homesick, it always wanted to go back to the garage every two or three weeks for “small” repairs, this went on and on, no sooner was the bike roadworthy then it would just stop, each problem would be slightly different than the other, and over the years of course was a good way to throw away cash.

On my friends last visit after two or three breakdowns he just had enough, and wanted to get rid of the bike, as now it was not even able to start at all, he decided just to scrap it. So with a friend he went to LTO (Land Transportation Office – the Philippine regulatory office with regard to motorbikes and cars), and with all the correct paperwork wanted to just scrap the bike, so he had no more legal responsibility for it, just in case it turned up in a years time in accident. LTO had no idea how to do that, none, so in desperation his friend agreed to buy it off him for parts, but LTO said the bike would have to “pass” a physical check to sell, this was done at another location in Davao.

Trying to explain that his friend wanted to buy the bike for parts, and besides the bike was not able to move, LTO said that was the rules and they had no idea to scrap a vehicle,we were not going to leave it to rust on a roadside, as if it was used and in an accident, it could be tracked back to my friend, who we would be sure would be blamed in some way.

We found out that the new battery installed a few weeks before was an old one, the motorbike shop insisted that a battery only lasts that long. It was beyond arguing, and realizing it was just a rip off, we managed to get an attorney to do all the correct documentation, and “sell”  it on without having to worry about it showing up under a jeepney in a months time.

The funny thing was I asked all my friends, some with bike and some without, how they would scrap a bike, like LTO they had no idea, they insisted it was just left, and the problem would go away. Maybe I should have just done that?