ILOILO: The Land Transportation Office (LTO) is targeting 40,000 drivers from Western Visayas for its free theoretical course this year. LTO Assistant Regional Director Gaudioso Geduspan II said the free theoretical driving course is an outreach program under the Driver's Education Center. 'It is a course that aspiring license applicants must undergo to be issued a student permit preparatory to be issued a new license later,' he said during the Kapihan sa Bagong Pilipinas forum here on Tuesday. He said the free training will also be held in far-flung areas of the region. 'So far, for the past two years, we have been giving this to more than 40,000 beneficiaries. LTO has a target of one million beneficiaries by the end of the year. The contribution of Region 6 is 40,000. For this year, so far, we have more than 4,000,' he said. Geduspan also said the LTO regional office has resupplied and redistributed driver's license cards to more than 217,488 applicants from September 2023 to May 2024. 'We intend to r esume and sustain this supply and distribution as long as our office can cope,' he said. He pointed out that LTO-6 has one of the highest numbers of apprehensions and prosecution of fixers, especially on licenses and registration, through their anti-fixing operations. Based on their latest data, 23 fixers were arrested and prosecuted, while 86 cases were filed, with nine convictions. Two of those arrested were employees of the LTO. Source: Philippines News Agency