LTO to receive 2.2 million more plastic cards for licenses by May

MANILA, Philippines — Over two million more plastic cards will be delivered to the Land Transportation Office (LTO) by May of this year, transportation secretary Jaime Bautista said on Wednesday.

One million plastic cards were already delivered to the LTO on March 25, following the lifting of an injunction order on the delivery of 3.2 million plastic cards to the agency.

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

This means that LTO would receive around 2.2 million more cards in a few months which Bautista said would be enough to narrow the backlog on plastic-printed driver’s licenses.

“Forty-five days after the delivery of the one million, there will be around 2.2 million more plastic cards that will be delivered. So this will be enough to address the backlog on driver’s license,” the transportation chief was quoted as saying in a statement from the LTO.

This comes after Bautista’s visit to the LTO Central Office in Quezon City to inspect the one million plastic cards previously delivered to the agency.

The cards will also undergo inspection by experts from the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) to determine if the delivered cards comply with the terms of reference of the contract.

After the DOST approves the delivered plastic cards, Bautista said that the cards will be promptly sent to the regional offices for processing and claiming from April 15 onwards.

On Tuesday, LTO released a schedule for the renewal of driver’s licenses when motorists would be allowed to claim their plastic-printed licenses.

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

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.

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.