LTO releases schedule for renewal of plastic-printed driver’s licenses

An LTO staff showing a brand new student driver’s license at the Land Transportation Office Quezon City District Office in Centris Station. (INQUIRER FILE PHOTO/LYN RILLON)

MANILA, Philippines — More Filipino motorists will be able to avail of plastic card driver’s licenses, months after the Land Transportation Office (LTO) said it had a shortage of the plastic cards in January of this year.

This development comes, as the LTO released on Tuesday a driver’s license renewal schedule for motorists who will claim their plastic card-printed driver’s license.

Citing a memo it issued on the same day, the LTO listed the following schedule for license renewals:

Driver’s licenses that expired from April 1 to August 31, 2023, and expiring from April 1 to April 30, 2024, should be renewed from April 15 to April 30, 2024.

Driver’s licenses that expired from September 1 to December 31, 2023, and expiring from May 1 to May 31, 2024, should be renewed from May 1 to May 31, 2024.

Driver’s licenses expiring from January 1 to March 31, 2024, and June 1 to June 30, 2024, should be renewed from June 1 to June 30, 2024.

READ: LTO sees end of driver’s license card shortage 

“Failure of the driver to renew his/her driver’s license within the prescribed schedule shall render the license expired,” the agency said in a statement.

The schedules coincides with the end of the Holy Week travel rush “in order for motorists to start claiming their plastic-printed driver’s license next week in time for the end of the long Holy Week break,” the LTO explained.

It added the schedule is aimed at ensuring that motorists would not flock to LTO offices nationwide.

“The list will ensure orderly distribution. This list will be posted in our LTO offices and in our social media accounts so we appeal to our clients to always keep themselves updated,” LTO chief Vigor Mendoza II was quoted as saying.

The LTO will be able to resume its issuance of plastic card-printed driver’s licenses following the lifting by the Court of Appeals (CA) of an injunction order against the delivery of over three million plastic cards on Monday.

READ: LTO running out of driver’s license cards, again 

This injunction was filed by the losing bidder, Allcards Inc., against Banner Plastic Card Inc., the winning bidder tasked with supplying about 5.2 million plastic cards to the agency.

The order eventually resulted in the “mounting” backlog of plastic-printed driver’s licenses, which will be around 4.1 million by the end of March.

The LTO noted that with the lifting of the injection order, it would be able to “narrow the backlog gap.”