Enough supply of plastic cards pushes LTO to set date of license renewals

The Land Transportation Office on Thursday has scheduled six sets of renewal dates for driver's licenses that expired from 1 April 2023 following the delivery of more plastic cards in the past few weeks.

LTO Chief Assistant Secretary Atty. Vigor Mendoza II said the renewal schedule means that those whose driver's licenses expired from 1 April 2023 up to 30 September 2023 will get their printed version of the driver's license.

"Meron na po tayong sapat na bilang ng plastic cards to cover the printing of the driver's licenses that expired mula April 1 hanggang September 30 dahil sa tulong ng ating DOTr Secretary Jaime Bautista ay mas pinadami ang production at mas pinabilis ang delivery para ma-address na natin ang backlog sa driver's license," Mendoza said.

Based on the memorandum issued by Mendoza dated October 4 and addressed to all Regional Directors, heads of district offices, and other officials, the following are the scheduled dates of renewal:

For Driver's License that expired from 1 to 30 April, the scheduled renewal dates are from 6-31 October 2023;

For Driver's License that expired from 1-31 May 2023, the scheduled renewal dates are from 1-30 November 2023;

For Driver's License that expired from 1-30 June 2023, the scheduled renewal dates are from 1-31 December 2023;

For Driver's License that expired from 1-31 July 2023, the scheduled renewal dates are from 1-31 January 2024;

For Driver's License that expired from 1-31 August 2023, the scheduled renewal dates are from 1-29 February 2024;

For Driver's License that expired from 1-30 September 2023, the scheduled renewal dates are from 1-31 March 2024.

Mendoza earlier explained that the reason why they schedule the renewal dates is to avoid congestion in all LTO offices across the country.

"Ang iniiwasan natin dito ay dahil nga may plastic card na ay biglang bugso ng tao sa ating mga opisina para mag-renew. Gusto nating magkaroon ng sistema upang mabilis at komportable sa ating mga kababayan," Mendoza said.

But for those who have already renewed their licenses and were only given paper-printed driver's licenses, Mendoza said all they have to do is go back to the licensing office and present the receipt of their payment for the issuance of the plastic version of the driver's license.

The LTO earlier extended the validity of all driver's licenses that expired on 1 April 2023 due to the shortage of plastic cards.

Since the LTO is already capable of printing the plastic version of the driver's license, Mendoza explained that such validity would expire if the driver's license holders failed to renew them on the scheduled dates.

"Kapag may failure to renew the driver's license based on the schedules na binigay natin, automatic deemed as expired na yung driver's license kaya nanawagan tayo sa ating mga kababayan na sundin ang ating schedule on time," Mendoza said.

"Mabilis lang po ang proseso ng pag-renew, it will only take around 15 minutes at ang maganda pa dito ay nilagyan natin ng sistema ito para hindi matagal yung waiting time," he added.