It has been almost a year since Rodrigo Nieves, 36, of Barangay Soong, Lapu-lapu City, has gone to the Land Transportation Office-Central Visayas (LTO-7) Lapu-lapu district office to renew his
driver’s license card.
But it was only yesterday that he was finally able to get his driver’s license card at the Island Central Mactan (ICM) mall, an offsite LTO office inside the mall that started operating only last Wednesday, May 23.
He said he had gone several times to the LT0 Lapu-lapu City office to follow up on his driver’slicense card that he renewed in September last year, until this week he was informed by LTO personnel that he could claim his card at its office in ICM.
LTO-7’s Temporary offsite Printing office (TOPO) in ICM is its second, after the opening of TOPO in SM Seaside on April 23, this year, which has already printed 9,800 license cards as of yesterday.
LTO-7 Director Victor Emmanuel Caindec said that ICM mall owner Erwin Lim volunteered to help LTO in catering the thousands of people who have yet to receive their license cards since November 2016.
Lim made the offer during a meeting last week with Special Assistant to the President Bong Go, and Office of the Presidential Assistant Visayas (OPAV) Secretary Michael Dino, Caindec said yesterday.
Caindec said there is a 320,000 backlog of license cards for Central Visayas, 140,000 of which are for Cebu.
The ICM TOPO is equipped with three working stations that can print up to 300 license cards a day – one printer with a capacity to print 200 license cards for the regular lane and another 100 cards for the priority lane, or for the persons with disability, pregnant and senior citizens.
LTO-7 does not spend for the TOPO, Caindec said, as ICM provided the place for free, cleaned the area, and even provided an internet connection.
“This is sort of part of our Corporate Social Responsibility, since we already have here the NBI satellite office, when we heard from sir Bong Go and Dino, we also want to help the LTO or the government in any ways we can,” said Lim, vice president and chief operating officer of ICM.
Working hours at TOPO ICM starts at 8 a.m. until 7 p.m., Mondays to Sundays.
Caindec however said that all LTO offices and TOPOs are closed every third Saturdays and Sunday of the month for a nationwide preventive system maintenance.