Land Transportation Office. (INQUIRER FILE PHOTO)
MANILA, Philippines — Sen. Francis Tolentino urged the Land Transportation Office (LTO) on Wednesday to upgrade its systems and make necessary adjustments to tackle its backlog of 12.9 million motor vehicle license plates.
“What will it take for the LTO to upgrade the system?” Tolentino said.
Tolentino made the statement during a Senate deliberation on Senate Bill No. 159 — the proposed amendments to the Motorcycle Crime Prevention Act.
He also urged the LTO to prioritize older motor vehicles that have not yet been issued plates since 2014.
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Sen. JV Ejercito, the author of the proposed amendment bill, suggested that instead of pushing for double plates, the LTO should prioritize providing just one plate to all motor vehicles.
Meanwhile, Tolentino stressed that the LTO should streamline its process in adding and changing relevant information in the vehicle’s Radio Frequency Identification System (RFID) to fulfill the bill’s goal of preventing motorcycle crime.
“Administratively, it’s a hassle to go to the LTO and change your name and the other contents of the RFID. It‘s a bit complicated, but it can be done in the central office, with you doing the encoding. That’s probably okay, Tolentino said, speaking partly in Filipino.
In response, the LTO chief, Vigor Mendoza III, assured the senators that the agency was already set to fully address the backlog within two and a half years.