LTO: SC halt order too late, 93% of car plates delivered

The Land Transportation Office (LTO) has already distributed to its regional offices and dealers around 93 percent of the license plates turned over by the Bureau of Customs (BOC).

LTO chief Asst. Secretary Roberto Cabrera III said, however, that he did not yet have any information on how many license plates had actually been distributed to motorists.

Cabrera made the clarification on Wednesday, a day after the Supreme Court stopped the release of the 300,000 license plates for cars, buses, jeepneys and trucks, plus 400,000 for motorcycles.

He said he would issue a memorandum to the regional offices to halt distribution once the agency receives the temporary restraining order (TRO) from the high tribunal.

“(The TRO) is another step backwards. But we have to abide by the ruling of the Supreme Court,” Cabrera said in an interview.

He added that the LTO would continue with the encoding and processing of the vehicle plates since it was only the release that was covered by the TRO.

The high court issued the TRO pending resolution of the petition filed by Representatives Jonathan dela Cruz and Gustavo Tambunting, who said that seized plates could not be donated by the BOC to the LTO in view of the notice of disallowance issued by the Commission on Audit (COA).

In 2015, the COA disallowed payment to the supplier, Power Plates Development Concepts Inc. and J. Knierem BV Goes (PPI-JKG), because the LTO bid out the license plates contract in 2013 without sufficient appropriation under the national budget.

PPI-JKG did not pay customs duties because of the suspension of payment which prompted the BOC to confiscate the license plates which had arrived at the port.

Cabrera said that COA was “taking too long” to resolve whether or not to lift the notice of disallowance on the contract with PPI-JKG.

“I hope COA realizes that this is of national interest. Of course, we’d like it if they would decide in favor of the government and lift the disallowance. If not, then everyone could move forward,” he added.