Poe wants LTO's 'complete report' on plates, licenses backlog

Senator Grace Poe on Thursday urged the Land Transportation Office (LTO) to provide the public with a "complete report" on the backlogs of vehicle plates and license cards and to provide details on how it plans to address the problem.

“We ask the LTO to give the public a complete report on its backlog on vehicle plates and license cards to give a complete picture of the issues it is facing. With this, we also expect to know its timeline for clearing its deficiencies and how it will do it,” Poe said in a statement.

The chairperson of the Senate public services committee made the remark as she called out LTO for earning “a notorious reputation of delivering short of what is expected.”

“Thorough planning and estimation might help the LTO be up to date with its requirements. It can't always tell our people to rely on DIY and band-aid measures, which pose security risks and are prone to abuse,” Poe stressed.

“Binabayaran ng motorista ang plaka at lisensya. Hindi katanggap-tanggap na sa huli, ang solusyon ay papel na kanya-kanyang imprenta. Hindi dapat taumbayan ang pinahihirapan sa sitwasyon na hindi naman nila kasalanan,” she went on.

(Motorists are paying for their plates and licenses. It is unacceptable that the LTO’s solution is to print their licenses on paper. The public should not bear the burden of the situation which they did not create.)

GMA News Online has reached out to LTO to comment on Poe's statement but it has yet to respond as of posting time.

On Wednesday, LTO chief Jay Art Tugade said the license plates for motorcycles are expected to run out by June, while those for four-wheeled vehicles by July.

It is not the first time that the LTO faced such a problem. To recall, LTO also faced backlash after it failed to produce millions of license plates for registered vehicles in the country.

Apart from the problem of backlogs on vehicle plates, the LTO also announced last week that it will print out drivers’ licenses on paper due to the shortage of plastic cards.

Some licensing offices like Pasay and Quezon City still have plastic cards but not enough for the thousands who will apply for new ones or renew their licenses in the months ahead. —VAL, GMA Integrated News.