The Land Transportation Office (LTO) is set to start the license plates production in October to address the backlog in both the motor vehicles and motorcycles.
Vigor Mendoza II, LTO chief and Department of Transportation (DOTr) assistant secretary, said the agency ordered 15.9 million metal plates and around one million have been delivered to LTO for embossing.
At the Senate budget hearing recently, Mendoza said it will take more than two years to address the 13 million backlog on license plates, which are mostly for motorcycles and for the replacement of the old green plates to the new white plates.
“We already have machines that will be used in the embossing of the license plates and we will start the full production this October,” said Mendoza.
The machines, two of which are robotic and nine are semi-manual, are capable of producing around 42,000 license plates per day, he added.
“It will take over two years to finish the entire 13 million backlog but while we are doing that, we will be able to cater to the current usage of plates by October this year. The goal is to release the license plate for all the newly bought motorcycles so that they would not be included in the backlog,” said Mendoza.
“We are also dedicating some machines to cover the backlog,” he added.
Mendoza said addressing the issue is the main priority of LTO.
“We are assuring our countrymen that we will solve it as soon as possible. This is our main priority and we have been coordinating with (DOTr) Secretary (Jaime) Bautista on this matter,” he added.
Aside from the production of plates to address the backlog, Mendoza also committed to distribute all the unclaimed license plates before the end of the year. – Myla Iglesias
