Alan Cayetano bats for 30-day moratorium on ‘no plate, no travel’ policy

Senate Majority Leader Alan Peter Cayetano said a 30-day moratorium on the Land Transportation Office's “No plate, No travel” policy will solve the problems hounding it after receiving flak from the public.

In a news release on Wednesday, Cayetano said the 30-day moratorium will give enough time to allow the LTO to go through their backlog as weel as private contractors to produce new plates.

Cayetano said the implementation of the policy last April 1 was unfair to motorists whom he said are being unduly punished for the agency’s inefficiency.

“People should not bear the burden of government inefficiency. Vehicle owners are penalized for not having license plates that the LTO and its private contractor failed to deliver on time,” he said.

Cayetano added that the LTO and its contractor's inefficiency in issuing and delivering plates should first be addressed before implementing the policy.

“Media earlier reported the delay in the issuance of license plates by the LTO, creating an unnecessary backlog. Plus car dealers cite the insufficient LTO manpower involved in the releasing of plates. Thus, even though plates have been made available, issuing it to vehicles has been a slow process.” he said.

Aside from this, Cayetano said he will be filing a bill which will hold government officials and private contractors liable for issues like these to prevent it from happening again.

“Let’s make sure government officials and private contractors are doing their job. And when they don’t, they should be the ones penalized and not the public,” he said.

Under the LTO policy, vehicle owners will pay a P10,000 fine while the driver will pay up to P5,000 if a vehicle does not have updated plates. —Andrei Medina/NB, GMA News