LTO told to give out new car plates by October 16

CEBU, Philippines - Malacañang has given the Land Transportation Office an ultimatum to distribute the new vehicle plates and enforce the “no registration no travel policy” by October 16.

This prompted LTO-7 regional director Arnel Tancinco to urge concerned vehicle owners to claim their new plates at their office.

During the 888 news forum at Marco Polo Plaza, Cebu yesterday, Tancinco announced that more than 14,000 motor vehicle plates and 26,000 motorcycle plates are now available in the regional office.

Tancinco said that as of last week, less than 10 percent of the plates have been distributed.

“For this time constraint, even us nagtuo mi dili maka-deliver sa October 16 sa distribution. But as far as we are concerned, it is already a date set by higher office. We need to focus on that one and we are hoping ma-distribute ang tanan,” said Tancinco.

The Department of Transportation and Communication earlier set August 1 to enforce the policy but it failed due to some concerns, said Tancinco.

The general distribution will go to the dealers who will register the purchased vehicles.

In some instances, the plates are directly distributed to the owner of the vehicles.

Tancinco, however, said that the payment of the plate, which ranges from P800 to P1,500, is among the issues in the distribution.

“But nevertheless, ang wala’y plate balance, we are willing to give it to the owners, not to the dealers anymore,” he said.

The LTO-7 top official assured that the new plate is better than the previous one.

The new license plate has security images that cannot be removed by any known method without damaging the sheeting while the bolt head screw and nuts will have their own serial number.

Following the enforcement of the “no registration no travel policy” on October 16, Tancinco said they will flag down vehicles without plates.

“We will no longer issue violations on non-attachment of plates but the registration itself,” he said.

He also announced yesterday that LTO-7 is the only region in the country that has complied with the registration within seven days.

“We promised before sa new policy sa registration that within seven days ang rehistro, it’s only Region-7 that complied,” he said.

Tancinco further announced that by January next year, they hope to start distributing a new design of plates for old vehicles but of the same number combination.

“The Motor Vehicle Plates Standardization Program says that only one design sa plaka ang gamiton,” he added. — (FREEMAN)