By Liezelle Soriano

MANILA — Over two million plastic cards for driver’s licenses will be delivered to the Land Transportation Office (LTO) in May 2024.

Department of Transportation (DOTr) Secretary Jaime Bautista made this statement during an inspection of the one million plastic cards delivered to the LTO on Monday.

Bautista expressed confidence that this delivery would help alleviate the backlog of plastic-printed driver’s licenses.

The DOTr chief noted that the delivery of these plastic cards followed the lifting of the injunction order on the delivery of the remaining 3.2 million cards by the Court of Appeals (CA).

Before distribution, the delivered plastic cards will undergo scrutiny by the Department of Science and Technology to ensure compliance with the contract’s terms, particularly regarding security features.

(el Amigo/MNM)

By Liezelle Soriano

MANILA — The Land Transportation Office (LTO) has on Monday (27 Nov 2023) disclosed that over 60 percent of the total number of vehicles — amounting to 14 million — are currently unregistered.

Assistant Secretary Vigor Mendoza of LTO emphasized that out of the 38 million vehicles, 14 million are yet to be registered.

Mendoza cited factors such as the ongoing pandemic and the prolonged non-use of some vehicles.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if some of them have been scrapped, especially motorcycles that may no longer be operational due to the passage of time. We will be excluding those from our numbers and ensuring data accuracy. Currently, these are the ones we are pursuing,” stated Mendoza.

The government is estimated to be losing between P37 billion to P38 billion this year due to the large number of unregistered vehicles, as mentioned by Mendoza.

“LTO’s target for this year is P31 billion. If we succeed, and considering the tight timeline at the end of the year, theoretically, it could mean an additional P37 billion,” added the official.

To address the issue of unregistered vehicles, LTO plans to implement stricter checkpoints as part of its proactive measures.

(ai/mnm)

By Junex Doronio

DOWN TO its last one (1) million plastic cards for driver’s licenses.

This occurred at the Land Transportation Office (LTO) after a local court issued a preliminary injunction to the government’s procurement of plastic cards.

“We are down to 1 million cards…This is on a first-come, first-served basis,” LTO Chief Assistant Secretary Vigor Mendoza revealed in a TeleRadyo Serbisyo interview.

However, he added that the remaining plastic cards are sufficient for the April, May, and June backlogs plus cards for overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) seeking to renew their driver’s licenses.

Mendoza said the OFWs who want to renew their licenses before leaving will need to present their ticket before the LTO.

He further said the LTO is eyeing workarounds such as tapping the National Printing Office in a government-to-government deal to provide plastic licenses.

“We are talking to them right now, same quality and hopefully the same price,” Mendoza said.

It was gathered that the LTO will ask the Department of Transportation (DOTr) to accelerate the bidding of the driver’s supply license cards for next year.

(ai/mnm)