Tugade bares plan to let gov’t print license cards

Transportation Secretary Arthur Tugade. (INQUIRER PHOTO)

Transportation Secretary Arthur Tugade on Thursday told lawmakers of his plan to let the government take over the printing of drivers’ license cards, which has reached a backlog of 1.1 million.

During the House of Representatives transportation committee hearing about President Rodrigo Duterte’s emergency powers, Tugade said the Department of Transportation plans to enter into a memorandum of agreement with the Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO) to print the drivers’ license cards using the state-owned printer APO Productions Inc.

APO is a government-owned corporation under the supervision of the PCOO.

“‘Yung lisensiya po, nag-uusap kami ni (PCOO) Secretary (Martin) Andanar kung saan magkakaroon ng understanding na yung printing ng lisensiya ay gagawin government to government,” Tugade said.

This meant instead of bidding out the printing of licenses, the license cards would be printed using government facilities, Tugade said.

Tugade also said the validity of the license cards would be extended to five years starting next month.

“Instead of three years, gagawin five years sa darating na buwan. Mag-uumpisa na po yung effectivity sa National Capital Region, five years na po ’yan. Hopefully I can finalize in the soonest time possible the memorandum of agreement between Secretary Andanar and our office so that mabigyan ng kabuhayan yung nais namin ’yung lisensiya imprenta rito on a government to government,” Tugade said.

The shortage of license cards started in 2013 after the Commission on Audit disallowed payments to a previous supplier, Amalgamated Motors Philippines Inc., for lack of a proper contract.

READ: LTO finally starts issuing driver’s license cards

A new supplier, Allcard Plastics Philippines Inc., won the bidding held in June 2015 to supply five million cards for P336.8 million. But the contract expired this year.

The Land Transportation Office announced that drivers using official receipts as licenses may receive their license cards soon this year after the LTO decided to reorder more than 1.25 million driver’s license cards from AllCard Plastics Philippines.

As to the problem of the backlog on license plates, Tugade proposed manufacturing these locally instead of bidding it out to a foreign corporation.

“‘’Yung plaka, pinagtataka ko po bakit ’yung plaka kailangan gawin kung saan saan. Pwede naman gawin dito ’yan. Pinag-iisipan namin na dapat kailangang dito na gawin, hindi kung saan saan,” Tugade said.

He said the equipment used to print the licenses abroad may be imported so that the licenses could be manufactured in the country.

“Kaya iniisip namin, kung maari, i-import namin yung makina, equipment that can produce the plate numbers and manufacture here. But in the meantime, that will take time, if there’s a possibility that local manufacturer using needed equipments located in the Philippines, so be it,” he said.

Tugade said the backlog on license plates was at 6.6 million, following the Commission on Audit disallowance on the contract with Dutch-Filipino consortium Knieriem BV Goes and Power Plates Development Concept Inc. that won the contract in manufacturing the plates.

The Supreme Court recently stopped the release of 700,000 license plates seized at the Bureau of Customs due to the consortium’s alleged nonpayment of taxes and customs duties.

The supply for the license plates was part of Land Transportation Office’s P3.8-billion Motor Vehicle License Plate Standardization Program won by the joint venture Power Plates Development Concepts Inc. and J. Knierem BV Goes. But the Commission on Audit disallowed the deal for being irregular and illegal.

READ: SC stops release of 700,000 seized license plates

Tugade said the backlog on license plates and license cards that started during the previous administration had caused a headache on the current management.

“Dapat tugunan ang isyu na ito. Nakakabwisit ang lisensiya, nakakabwisit ang plaka. Nabibwisit na ang mga tao sa isyu na ito. Pinakita ’yan sa eleksyon,” Tugade said, referring to the overwhelming mandate of the winning President Rodrigo Duterte who promised to end the backlog on license plates and cards.