CA allows delivery of plastic cards for drivers’ licenses

The Court of Appeals in Manila. BG PHOTO: COURT OF APPEALS WEBSITE

MANILA, Philippines — Around 1 million plastic cards were delivered to the Land Transportation Office’s (LTO) main office in Quezon City on Monday afternoon after the Court of Appeals (CA) lifted the preliminary injunction issued by a Quezon City regional trial court in October 2023.

The lower court’s order blocked the delivery of over three million plastic cards used in the printing of drivers’ licenses, resulting in a shortage and forcing the LTO to issue licenses printed on paper as a stop-gap measure.

The backlog was estimated at over 4.1 million by the end of the month, according to the LTO, which issues an average of 550,000 plastic cards per month.

READ: LTO’s plastic card fiasco

“We admire and respect the wisdom of the justices of the Court of Appeals in their decision to lift the writ of preliminary injunction,” LTO chief Assistant Secretary Vigor Mendoza said in a statement.

“We have been arguing [even before] that public interest must always prevail over business interest and in this case, the [appellate court] clearly saw the soundness and validity of the arguments we presented through the Office of the Solicitor General,” he added.

As of this writing, a copy of the decision is not yet available on the Court of Appeals’ website.

Government prerogative

But according to the LTO, it was penned by 11th Division Associate Justice Jose Lorenzo dela Rosa, and concurred in by Associate Justices Nina Antonio-Bautista and Emily Aliño-Geluz.

In its decision to lift the writ of preliminary injunction, the appellate court argued that the lower court should not have entertained the case in the first place because Allcard Inc., the losing bidder for the plastic card contract, failed to comply with the administrative process before seeking legal intervention.

READ: Plastic drivers’ licenses delayed anew due to paper work issues — LTO

It was referring to the process in which Allcard should have appealed its disqualification before the bids and awards committee of the Department of Transportation, the LTO’s parent agency, as a matter of proper procedure.

The appellate court stressed the government’s right to reject any and all bids, subject to its discretion based on past Supreme Court decisions.

Immediate delivery

According to Mendoza, he has already directed LTO officials to coordinate with Banner Plastics Card Inc. for the immediate delivery of the remaining plastic cards.

He said the LTO would also come up with a new schedule for the release of plastic card-printed driver’s licenses at the soonest possible time.

Mendoza expressed confidence that the backlog would be addressed “as early as the second half of 2024,” especially since Transportation Secretary Jaime Bautista has already ordered the holding of a bid for the procurement of over 6 million plastic cards.

Even before the LTO awarded the P240 million contract to Banner for 5.2 million plastic cards in June 2023, there was already a backlog.

In October of that same year, the lower court ordered Banner to stop the delivery, based on the petition filed by Allcard.

Before the issuance of the preliminary injunction, Banner had delivered 1.9 million plastic cards, with 3.3 million more to go. INQ