Staff workers operate a hot-foil printing machine as they produce plate numbers at the Land Transportation Office (LTO) plate-making plant/assembly line in its headquarters in Quezon City. Jonathan Cellona, ABS-CBN News

MANILA - The Land Transportation Office (LTO) hopes to fully address its backlog in the distribution of motor vehicle license plates by June 2025.

During the Senate Committee on Public Services hearing on Wednesday, LTO Executive Director Atty. Greg Pua Jr. said the bottleneck lies with the vehicles' dealers.

“Marami na pong pumunta po sa’min na naghahanap po ng plaka at ‘pag tinignan po namin ang aming records, makikita po naibigay na po ito sa dealer months ago. So in that case, sino-show cause po namin ang dealer at pinag-e-explain bakit di na-distribute ang plaka sa mga tao.”

“Ang commitment po sa Presidente is to finish all the backlogs, motorcycle or motor vehicle backlogs plates, by June 2025,” Pua added.

Instead of procuring blank plates, he explained that they are buying finished plates to complement LTO’s plate production in its plant.

As for motorcycle plates, the LTO official said they are also addressing their backlog.

“Yun pong (year) 2023 pababa, 22, 21, diyan po ‘yung mga backlog po ng aming motorcyle plates because of those problems encountered by LTO dati. In order to address that, ‘yung production po namin, bulk of our production is to address the backlog,” Pua said.

Committee Chair Sen. Raffy Tulfo directed the agency to immediately address the problem.

“Gusto ko po na by the end of this year nabigay na po ‘yung mga plaka nila dahil sila po ay prone sa paghuhuli ng mga MMDA traffic enforcer or other traffic enforcement group,” Tulfo said.”

“Kawawa sila. Di nila kasalanan ‘yun dahil nabayaran nila yung motor, nabigay nila lahat ng mga requirements sa dealer, sa LTO and yet ang LTO ang may kasalanan at sila ngayon ang nagsa-suffer.” Tulfo added.

As for driver’s licenses, Pua said there is no shortage of cards.

“Meron lang tayo mga hindi pa bumabalik sa LTO para po ipa-print ang kanilang paper license. That’s why may information dissemination po kami we are encouraging those personnel na meron paper license to go to the LTO kasi ready na po ‘yung mga cards po.” 

TRANSFER OF MOTOR VEHICLE OWNERSHIP

LTO, meanwhile, clarified that the retroactive implementation of its Administrative Order VDM-2024-046 is temporarily suspended.

Under the AO, the sale, donation, or transfer of a motor vehicle needs to be reported to the LTO within five days after the transaction; failure to do so will result in a fine of P20,000.

Tulfo pointed out the need for LTO to come out with a new circular to properly explain the system and address the concerns of those who have sold, donated, or transferred their vehicle before the effectivity of the AO. He said he, too, has sold a couple of vehicles before.

Pua said they are reviewing their guidelines on previous transactions.

FROM THE ARCHIVES