INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines — The Land Transportation Office (LTO) on Friday told the public to remove any unauthorized commemorative license plates or face the risk of being meted with fines and other penalties.
LTO Chief Jose Arturo Tugade said this in a statement, after reminding the public that LTO has not recommended any form of commemorative license plates in either private or public vehicles.
“The current administration of the LTO has not recommended commemorative license plates to be issued to motor vehicle owners, thus its use is therefore prohibited,” said Tugade.
“If vehicle owners are caught by law enforcers still using commemorative plates whose effectivity dates have already expired, they will be apprehended and fined,” he added.
Commemorative license plates are those whose use is limited to the observance and/or commemoration of events that bear national significance, and with a validity of only one year as approved by the Department of Transportation (DOTr).
According to Tugade, operating a motor vehicle with an unauthorized license plate will result in a P5,000 fine on the motor vehicle owner and confiscation of the unauthorized plate under DOTC Joint Administrative Circular No. 2014-01.
He said commemorative license plates should not be used to intimidate traffic enforcers and stop them from making apprehensions for traffic violations.
This came after a photo of a vehicle donning a commemorative license plate bearing the with the letters “PNPA,” alluding to the Philippine National Police Academy, went viral online.
A Facebook page of the PNPA then warned the public of the presence of “unscrupulous people that are neither directly connected to nor a graduate of PNPA using commemorative plates, badges, emblems and stickers that are violative of traffic and other laws, something which we cannot tolerate.
LTO said that it has not approved any commemorative license plate that bears the letters “PNPA” and no such license plate was approved by the DOTr and endorsed to the LTO.