LTO activates 25 license sites

MANILA, Philippines - The Land Transportation Office yesterday activated 25 sites for filing driver’s license applications in line with the aim of wiping out the license backlog of around 900,000 by October.

The Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) said in a statement the sites are located in Metro Manila, Central Luzon, Calabarzon (Cavite-Laguna-Batangas-Rizal-Quezon) and Eastern Visayas.

The following sites will be accepting applications for driver’s license, student’s permit and conductor’s license: Angeles District Office, Batangas Licensing Center, Biñan Licensing Center, Bulacan Licensing Center, Cavite Licensing Center, Kalookan Licensing Extension Office, La Loma District Office, Las Piñas License Extension Office, Makati Licensing Center, Mandaluyong Extension Office, Manila East District Office, Manila Licensing Center, Manila Renewal Section, Manila South District Office, Marikina District Office, Muntinlupa Extension Office, Pampanga Licensing Center, Parañaque Extension Office, Pasay Licensing Center, Pasig District Office, Quezon City District Office, San Juan Licensing Center, Tacloban Licensing Center, Taguig Extension Office and Valenzuela District Office.

“We will print licenses during Saturdays and after office hours on weekdays, in order to erase the current backlog of around 900,000 licenses by the beginning of October this year,” LTO chief Alfonso Tan Jr. said.

The LTO was forced to issue temporary license cards due to a shortage from previous supplier Amalgamated Motors Philippines, Inc.

Transportation Secretary Joseph Abaya said the government intends to bring back to normal the release of driver’s license cards.

“Our effort to break a 30-year monopoly in driver’s license cards supply is finally about to bear fruit. It is unfortunate that we had to resort to temporary licenses for several months, but good governance principles demanded an open, fair and transparent bid. We will now work double time to normalize this service,” he said.

The DOTC and LTO earlier this year conducted a bidding for the supply of license cards to address the shortage. In June, Allcard Plastics Philippines Inc. bagged the contract for the LTO’s License Cards Supply Project after submitting a P337-million bid, 25.3 percent lower than the P450-million budget for the contract.

Under the contract, Allcard will be supplying five million pieces of license cards over a one-year period.