LTO defers ‘doble plaka’ for motorcycles

MANILA, Philippines — The implementation of a controversial provision of the “doble plaka” law has been put on hold for now.

The Land Transportation Office (LTO), in a memorandum dated July 1 signed by Transportation Assistant Secretary Edgar Galvante, said this was due to the nonavailability of the license plates and stickers compounded by the new coronavirus disease.

Republic Act No. 11235, or the Motorcycle Crime Prevention Act signed by President Rodrigo Duterte in March 2019, required motorcycle owners to put big and color-coded license plates on the front and back of their vehicles for easy identification.

Galvante said the health crisis compelled government agencies, including the LTO, to impose quarantine measures that limited its operational capacity and made it difficult to process the backlog in license plates numbering millions.