The government on Monday began issuing new drivers’ licenses at 25 sites in Metro Manila and Regions III, IV-A and VIII.
These are at the following Land Transportation Offices (LTO): Angeles District Office, Manila South District Office, Batangas Licensing Center, Marikina District Office, Biñan Licensing Center, Muntinlupa Extension Office, Bulacan Licensing Center, Pampanga Licensing Center, Cavite Licensing Center, Parañaque Extension Office, Kalookan Licensing Extension Office, Pasay Licensing Center, La Loma District Office, Pasig District Office;
Las Piñas License Extension Office, Quezon City District Office, Makati Licensing Center, San Juan Licensing Center, Mandaluyong Extension Office, Tacloban Licensing Center, Manila East District Office, Taguig Extension Office, Manila Licensing Center, Valenzuela District Office and Manila Renewal Section.
“Our effort to break a 30-year monopoly in supplying driver’s licenses is about to bear fruit,” Transportation Secretary Joseph Abaya said.
“It is unfortunate that we had to resort to temporary licenses for several months but good governance demanded an open, fair and transparent bid. We will now work double-time to normalize this service,” he said.
The license cards sport a new, color-coded design: orange cards for student drivers, yellow cards for conductors, and blue cards for professional and nonprofessional drivers.
The Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) recently awarded the driver’s license supply project to Allcard Plastics, whose P336.87-million bid was 25 percent lower than the P450-million allocation for the contract.
Allcard is responsible for the delivery of five million license cards over a 12-month period. The supply is intended to cover demand for the next three years.
“We will print licenses on Saturdays and after office hours on weekdays to erase the current backlog of around 900,000 licenses by the beginning of October,” Land Transportation Office chief Alfonso Tan Jr. said.
Three bidders qualified to supply the license cards: Allcard, current license card supplier Amalgamated Motors Philippines Inc. (Ampi), and the joint venture of DVK Philippines Enterprises and Cardz Middle East Trading LLC.
The financial bids of Ampi and DVK-Cardz JV were P373.880 million and P428.8 million, respectively, the DOTC said.–Miguel R. Camus