Land Transportation Office chief Assistant Secretary Vigor Mendoza II meets with officials of the Philippine Coast Guard to discuss the finalization of the “No Registration, No Travel” policy strategic plans. The meeting happened on January 28, 2024. Photo courtesy of LTO Facebook
MANILA, Philippines — The Land Transportation Office (LTO) said on Tuesday that it had tapped the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) for the stricter implementation of the “No Registration, No Travel” policy.
According to the LTO, its chief Assistant Secretary Atty. Vigor Mendoza II met with PCG Investigation and Detection Management Service officials on January 28 to discuss finalizing the policy’s strategic plan.
READ: LTO-NCR logs 32,000 delinquent vehicle owners from Jan 1 to 23
During the meeting, Mendoza also mentioned the complaints he has been receiving from transport groups regarding drivers and operators of unregistered vehicles.
The LTO said that based on the complaints of transport groups, colorum drivers and operators “steal” around 30 percent of the daily income of drivers with registered vehicles.
“We understand these concerns and this is the reason why we have been strengthening our coordination and interoperability with the coast guard and other law enforcement agencies against these colorum vehicles,” said Mendoza in a press release.
Meanwhile, the agency said that 182,458 delinquent motor vehicle registrations were recorded from January 1 to 23.
Of this number, 48,714 were motor vehicles, and 133,744 were motorcycles.
The LTO-National Capital Region office registered the highest number of delinquent motor vehicle registrations during the same period, with 32,370.
It was followed by LTO-Region VII with 22,729, LTO-Region III with 22,133, and LTO-Region IV-A with 18,428, according to the LTO.
Delinquent motor vehicle owners are those whose registration has expired or have purposefully refused to register their automobiles.
However, the LTO noted that there are still approximately 24 million motor vehicles with expired registration, with the majority being motorcycles.
It added that this figure constitutes around 65 percent of the total number of motor vehicles in the country.
Furthermore, LTO disclosed that the office had impounded 1,735 motorcycles and 231 motor vehicles from January 1 to 23.
“Hangga’t maaari ay ayaw nating manghuli dahil ito ay nangangahulugan ng mas matinding abala sa mga motorista, kasama na diyan ang mataas na penalty,” Mendoza said.
READ: LTO to have special lanes for ‘delinquent vehicle owner’ registrations
(As much as possible, we don’t want to apprehend because it implies a greater inconvenience for motorists, including the high penalty.)
“But we will have no other option but to conduct enforcement if this is the way to compel all the remaining delinquent motor vehicles to comply with the obligation that comes with vehicle ownership. Let me inform them na pinapalawak na namin ang ang aming mga impounding areas specifically for this purpose (Let me inform them that we are expanding our impounding areas specifically for this purpose),” he added.