LTO addresses license and motorcycle plate backlog

If you are still wondering where your driver’s license or motorcycle plate is after all these years, well, the new chief of the Land Transportation Office (LTO) has the answer.

In a recent memorandum order, LTO chief Jay Art Tugade instructed the different LTO Regional, District, and Extension offices with faulty laser engravers to look for licensing centers and driver’s license renewal offices (DLROs) within their jurisdiction that have working equipment. Produce the driver’s licenses there and inform motorists of their location.

“This can serve as a stop-gap measure for the meantime while we await the repairs of defective laser engravers to be completed. Also, informing the public which office to go to for driver’s license issuance and renewal prevents confusion and further inconvenience to them,” said Tugade.

Tugade added that the vital parts necessary for the repair of the laser engravers are already with Customs.

“We were already informed that the vital parts necessary for the repair of the laser engravers are already available at the Customs. We need to put them in one by one to the machines and evaluate them. As for the timeline, we are looking at fixing the machines by February of next year,” added Tugade.

Regarding the 12 million motorcycle plate backlog, Tugade said that 9.4 million of those will be replaced soon with the new design that is bigger, easier to read, color-coded, uses aluminum substrate material with a reflectorized background, and has security features which are all in compliance with  Republic Act No. 11235 or the “Motorcycle Crime Prevention Act.”