(INQUIRER FILE PHOTO / MARIANNE BERMUDEZ)
MANILA, Philippines — The Land Transportation Office (LTO) on Wednesday said it is aiming to end within this year the backlog on motorcycle license plates.
LTO Executive Director Greg Pua Jr. said that the target date is earlier than the June 2025 deadline set by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.
“Ang (The) commitment po sa Presidente is to finish all the backlogs motorcycle or motorcycle by June 2025, but we will consider po itong 2020 na motorcycles,” said Pua in a Senate hearing.
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“We’re doing everything po para matapos (to finish it all) this year,” he added, explaining that the LTO has already begun procuring finished license plates instead of just blank plates to help address the backlogs.
Pua made the commitment during a Senate hearing, when Senator Raffy Tulfo quoted a concerned citizen who had been waiting for his motorcycle license plate since 2020.
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Tulfo told the LTO to find a way to provide these motorcycle owners their plates as soon as possible as they are the most prone to harassment from traffic enforcers.
“They are prone to being apprehended by MMDA traffic enforcers, or other traffic enforcement groups: they are being harassed, blocked at checkpoints when it’s not their fault,” Tulfo said in Filipino.
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Pua pointed out that the delays are due to the backlogs the LTO experienced from 2020 to 2023.
Vehicle dealers summoned
Meanwhile, Pua also bared that there is already a significant amount of license plates ready for distribution but have remained in the possession of vehicle dealers.
“We have enough license plates, but a bottleneck forms when it reaches the vehicle dealers.A lot of people came to us looking for their license plates, bur records showed that such were already forwarded to the dealer months ago,” Pua added.
Hence, Pua said the LTO has already summoned dealers to have them explain why vehicle plates have yet to be distributed to vehicle owners.