LTO-7 eyes distribution of 300,000 license plates before 2024 ends

LTO-7’s storage facility in Talisay City, Cebu. | FILE PHOTO

CEBU CITY, Philippines — Almost 300,000 plates are yet to be distributed to the owners, according to an official from the Land Transportation Office (LTO) in Cebu.

This is already half of the figures from the total number of unclaimed licensed plates last year, which was almost 600,000.

Joel Maloloy-on, chief of LTO Cebu City District Office, said that the number was already an achievement of the agency, noting that they had already dispensed nearly a huge number of license plates since LTO started the distribution in August 2023.

Maloloy-on said that they are targeting to distribute all the 300,000 unclaimed plates before the year ends.

Maloloy-on added that they had already dispensed 183,000 licensed plates last April 22, Monday. And every day, he said that they are releasing 4,000 to 5,000 license plates.

From June 9, 2023 to April 22, 2024, there were 163,322 motorcycle plates released and 19,858 for motor vehicles.

The estimated 600,000 plates were accumulated from 2018 to 2023, 530,000 of which were for motorcycles and 140,000 were for motor vehicles, according to LTO Assistant Secretary Vigor Mendoza II during his visit in Talisay City last year.

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The LTO official is urging those who have not yet claimed their license plates to visit LTO to get their plates.

Subsequently, he is urging the motor vehicle dealers to help the agency in distributing the license plates.

He said that the agency is trying their best to achieve their goal within the timeline.

Maloloy-on added that they already requested additional personnel as well as additional equipment like computers to expedite their transactions. He said that their bottleneck is in the software and hardware.

Previously, LTO-7 Director Glen Galario said that among the challenges that they encountered that affected the delay of the distribution were the lack of personnel and equipment.

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Maloloy-on said that the owners can claim their license plates from their facility in Talisay City. They just have to submit their OR/CR to the LTO’s district offices, then the LTO will notify them when their plates are available for pick up.

“Personally, they have to go to our sites. If the license plates are available, we will immediately release the plates. So, with regards to the dealers, if they can’t distribute to the owners, we can the license plates back from the dealers. Personally, the LTO will be the one to release it to our clients,” said Maloloy-on.

Moreover, Maloloy-on said that the agency has no backlogs for the newly purchased vehicles; especially that they are strictly implementing the 11-day requirement to process the license plates from the dealers to the owners.

The LTO said in its online portal that usually, first-time registrations would be handled by motor vehicle dealers.

LTO’s existing memorandum regarding registration of new vehicles has an estimated processing time between 7 and 11 days.

READ MORE: LTO-7 has new assistant regional director, updates for vehicle plates distribution

Failure to comply within the allotted window of process will result in the suspension of accreditation of the dealers, according to Maloloy-on.

“For the part of LTO, we are trying our best to comply with the timeline given by the  Assistant Secretary,” he said.

Unregistered vehicles

Meanwhile, an estimated 400,000 vehicles are unregistered in the Central Visayas.

Maloloy-on said that among the factors that they observed was due to the “lack of law enforcement operations in the past” especially in far-flung areas.

“Mao ni ang contributing [factor] nga nitaas ang unregistered motor vehicles, especially katung mga far-flung areas dili ma reach sa atong services,” said Maloloy-on.

But he assured the public that the LTO is already working to address it, so that those in the far-flung areas will be catered.

When asked the total number of unregistered vehicles at present, Maloloy-on said that he still could not provide them but he assured that the number of registration is increasing as well as with the licensing.

The district offices can cater from 350 to 400 applications every day, he said.