Land Transportation Office (LTO) chief Assistant Secretary Vigor Mendoza II said Tuesday that there will be sufficient driver’s licenses and motor vehicle license plates by the end of the year.
In a Palace briefing, Vigor said there should be no more backlog for driver’s licenses starting 1 July 2024.
“We have sufficient driver’s license cards to support the demand until the end of the year,” Mendoza said.
“Approximately 9.7 million cards have been bidded out by our (Department of Transportation) and LTO,” he added.
The LTO official also said that people with paper driver’s licenses should get their plastic cards at their local LTO branch and encouraged those whose licenses expired on 30 April and those from last year to renew their licenses as soon as possible.
He added that the agency will also be launching a courier service for license card delivery, similar to passports.
“We want it to be convenient for the public to get their licenses,” Mendoza said. “Especially for those who already have a paper one, we want it to be convenient.”
On the matter of license plates, Mendoza said that there is more than enough supply. He emphasized that President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has directed LTO to strictly deal with dealers who are not distributing plates to motorists within 11 days of vehicle purchase.
“We issued over a hundred show cause orders to dealers today to explain why they did not deliver the plates to our motorists,” Mendoza said. “We will continue to discipline our ranks, including those LTO who will not comply with the five-day requirement.”
Mendoza assured the public that by 1 July, all motor vehicles purchased in 2022, 2023 and 2024 should have their plates. The LTO also aims to replace all old green plates with black and white plates by the end of the year.
The only challenge, according to Mendoza, is the backlog of motorcycle plates which has reached 11 million. However, he assured that the LTO has a program to address this backlog.
“By the end of 2024, we would have addressed more or less 50 percent of the backlog,” Mendoza said. “By June 2025, we would have finished the backlog as far as motorcycles are concerned.”
The LTO aims to address 50 percent of the backlog by the end of 2024 and clear the entire backlog by June 2025.
“The beauty here, side by side with addressing the backlog, we are addressing the current demand,” Mendoza said.