New license cards for motor vehicles (File photo from Philippine Daily Inquirer)
The Senate unanimously ratified on Wednesday the bicameral committee report on a bill that will extend the validity of driver’s license to five years or even up to 10 years if a holder has not committed any violation.
The bill also seeks to penalize prohibited acts attendant to the issuance of the license.
After it was ratified by both chambers of Congress, the bill will be transmitted to Malacañang for President Rodrigo Duterte’s signature.
Senator Grace Poe, who sponsored the bill as chair of the Senate committee on public services, said the passage of the measure was an “attempt to curb corruption and ease the woes of motorists who have to line up just to renew their licenses in the Land Transportation Office every three years.”
“The enactment of the measure is necessary to amend the present law and institutionalize such policy since Administrative Order No. 2016-34 issued by the Land Transportation Office that prescribes five-year validity for driver’s license cannot amend the law,” Poe said in a statement.
The bill seeks to amend Section 23 of Republic Act No. 4136, as amended by Batas Pambansa Blg. 398 and Executive Order No. 1011 or the Land Transportation and Traffic Code.
Once enacted into law, the senator said, the validity of a driver’s license would not just be extended from three years to five years, but those without infractions during those five years would also be granted a 10-year license upon renewal.
But she said the 10-year validity period was “quite stringent in that any traffic violation would mean that the driver would not be eligible for the longer validity.”
Poe said a longer validity period for non-professional and professional driver’s license was important “to save cost on the part of the government and the license holder as motorists do not have to renew their licenses every three years, even as the demand and applications for drivers’ licenses exponentially increased over the years.”
The approval of the bill, she said, would not also mean additional fees for driver’s license holders./ac