LTO allows improvised car plates until year-end

Inquirer files

MANILA, Philippines — The Land Transportation Office (LTO) has deferred the ban on the use of improvised and temporary plates for motor vehicles to the end of the year.

Instead of Sept. 1, the prohibition will be implemented starting Dec. 31, the LTO said in a statement on Sunday.

But LTO chief Assistant Secretary Vigor Mendoza II said this should not be an excuse for motor vehicle owners who have already available license plates for their motor vehicles.

READ: Tolentino asks LTO to stop order vs improvised plates amid production backlog

“We ask the motorists to claim and install their respective license plates as soon as they are available either in the car dealerships and replacement plates in our offices,” he added.

According to Mendoza, the deadline extension would not “diminish their effort to aggressively come up with measures to deliver all the unclaimed license plates to the rightful owners.”

He instructed the LTO regional directors and district office heads to coordinate with the local government units for the distribution of the license plates to their rightful owners.

On July 1, Mendoza issued LTO Memorandum Circular No. VDM-2024-2721, or the guidelines on the use of improvised and temporary vintage plates, as well as dealer plates for newly purchased cars and motorcycles.

For new four-wheel vehicles and motorcycles, their owners are only allowed to use the dealer plates for 15 days from the issuance of the sales invoice.

For motorcycles bought before Jan. 1, 2023, their owners will be allowed to use temporary plates that have the MV file number on them until the actual plates are available.

The memo was supposed to take effect on Aug. 1, but was moved to Sept. 1, until its implementation was finally deferred by Dec. 31.

The memo was issued against the use of improvised and temporary plates after an initial investigation revealed registered owners of vehicles, especially the newly-bought ones, are not claiming their license plates from motor vehicle dealerships.

Thousands unclaimed

According to the LTO, thousands of license plates remain unclaimed in various motor vehicle dealerships. In a meeting with car dealers last month, car dealers said their clients failed to claim the plates despite their constant reminders to them.

Mendoza said the installation of proper license plates would contribute to the prevention of crimes, since some vehicles using fake plates were being used in criminal activities.

“There is no more backlog in the supply of license plates for four-wheeled vehicles, so there is no reason for these vehicle owners not to claim and install them on their vehicles,” the LTO chief said.

“The only backlog remaining are for license plates for motorcycles. This is now our focus in compliance with the directive from President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to address all the backlog on license plates by June next year,” he added.