The Land Transportation Office (LTO) chief Assistant Secretary Vigor Mendoza II announced on Thursday plans to speed up the issuance of license plates, following Department of Transportation Secretary Vince Dizon’s criticism of the slow rollout and his challenge for the agency to issue plates within three days.

Currently, the process takes about five days, but Mendoza shared that efforts are underway to ensure that license plates are available immediately when vehicles are released from dealerships.

“We’ve been in discussions with dealers and manufacturers since last year — we plan to make sure that when a vehicle leaves the dealership, it already has a plate,” he said.

Mendoza emphasized that proper inventory management and accounting systems must be in place to prevent issues like theft or loss in order to make this plan a reality. Final strategies will be discussed during a meeting on 5 March, with a nationwide rollout expected if the pilot run proves successful.

One of the key challenges currently faced by the LTO is the misallocation of plates, where dealers sometimes send plates to the wrong locations.

“Sometimes, when the dealer processes the plates, those meant for Manila are sent to Quezon City, and they get mixed up,” Mendoza explained.

Despite these challenges, Mendoza noted significant progress in addressing the backlog of motorcycle plates.

“In 2023, we started with 13 million, and now we’re down to nine million,” he said.