LTO: Claim new plates within 60 days or face penalty

UPDATE: The LTO has issued a clarification on this issue. Read the update here. 

New Land Transportation Office (LTO) chief Atty. Vigor Mendoza II said that his office will be issuing a new memo soon that sets a 60-day deadline for vehicle owners to claim their new license plates.

The LTO chief also indicated that they are looking into penalties to impose on vehicle owners if they do not claim their new plates within 60 days, including the cancelation of the vehicle’s Certificate of Registration (CR).

“We’ll be issuing a memo this week addressed to our regional directors for them to deliver these license plates to their end users within the next 60 days,” said Mendoza during an interview with CNN Philippines’ The Source.

Aside from the stockpile of unclaimed plates in the LTO, Mendoza said that many of these plates are still stuck at dealers where the vehicle was acquired. “We will be talking to the dealers in order for them to also do their part in bringing these down to their customers,” added Mendoza.

In an earlier report, the Commission on Audit (COA) said that there are still 1,790,000 pairs of unclaimed license plates at LTO, which roughly translates to PHP 800 million in value. These replacement license plates were already paid for by owners when they renewed their vehicle’s registration.

Mendoza also said that if these license plates are left unclaimed after the 60-day deadline, vehicle owners and dealers may be slapped with penalties and that they are seriously considering Senator Francis Tolentino's suggestion of canceling the vehicle’s registration as a penalty.

New plate checking portal

The LTO, together with its parent agency, the Department of Transportation (DOTr), has launched a new portal where vehicle owners can check the availability of their new plates and where to claim them.

To check plate availability and where to claim them, vehicle owners simply need to go to https://ltoplatereplacement.com/ and enter the vehicle’s plate number. No other information will be asked from the vehicle owner.

To know more about this new portal from LTO, please see its FAQs.