The Land Transportation Office (LTO) has extended the deadline on the prohibition against the use of improvised and temporary plates for motor vehicle owners, from 1 September to 31 December of this year.

LTO Chief, Assistant Secretary Atty. Vigor D. Mendoza II, however, said that this should not be an excuse for motor vehicle owners who have already available license plates to install them in their motor vehicles.

‘We ask the motorists to claim and install their respective license plates as soon as they are available either in the car dealerships and replacement plates in our offices,” said Mendoza.

The LTO earlier issued a memorandum circular against the use of improvised and temporary plates after an initial investigation revealed that registered owners of vehicles, especially the newly bought ones, are not claiming their license plates from motor vehicle dealerships.

Thousands of license plates remain unclaimed in various motor vehicle dealerships and in a meeting with car dealers last month, the car dealers said their clients are unable to claim the plates despite their repeated message to them.

Mendoza said the installation of license plates is also the LTO contribution to the crime prevention measures especially that some vehicles are being used in criminal activities.

“Wala na pong backlog sa mga four-wheel vehicles so there is no reason for these vehicle owners not to claim and install them in their vehicles,” said Mendoza.

“Ang natitira na lamang pong backlog ay mga plaka sa mga motorsiklo at ito po ay ang focus namin ngayon in compliance with the directive from President Marcos to address all the backlog on license plates by June next year,” he added.

Mendoza, however, stressed that the deadline extension will not diminish their effort to aggressively come up with measures to deliver all the unclaimed license plates to the rightful owners.

He said he already instructed the LTO Regional Directors and District Office heads to coordinate with the local government units for the distribution of the license plates.