LTO releases 700k driver’s license cards

Metro Manila drivers finally have something to be happy about, as the Land Transportation Office (LTO) started releasing 700,000 plastic license cards on Monday, December 18 in 36 licensing offices across Metro Manila.

AT LONG LAST. Drivers in Metro Manila finally get their wish: a license card before the end of the year. File photo

LTO Assistant Secretary Edgar Galvante made the announcement last Saturday, December 17, adding that the release covers all pending applications from January 1 to October 16, 2016. Rollout to the regions will follow, and is expected to be completed by February 2017.

He also warned the public against dealing with fixers, saying that “claimants that they need not pay a single centavo to claim their driver’s licenses since they have already paid for it.” All that’s needed to claim the license card is the official receipt issued to them when they applied for it.

The release will effectively remove 700,000 out of the 3-million backlog of LTO, dating all the back to 2013, when the Commission on Audit disallowed payments to LTO’s former supplier Amalgamated Motor Philippines, Inc. for lack of a proper contract.

Licenses that will be released will still have a validity of 3 years. LTO earlier extended the validity of driver’s licenses to 5 years for all applications processed after October 17, 2016 in LTO offices within Metro Manila. Other regions followed suit in November.

Source: CNN Philippines, Philippine Daily Inquirer, The Manila Times, Rappler, ABS-CBN News, Philippine News Agency