LTO eyes buying equipment for license plate production

MANILA, Philippines — The Land Transportation Office (LTO) is planning to buy its own equipment for the production of motor vehicle plates.

LTO chief Assistant Secretary Edgar Galvante said yesterday the agency plans to procure its own machine to produce vehicle plates.

The machine will be placed inside the LTO compound in Quezon City, Galvante said in an interview over radio station dzMM.

“It will save us costs and (is) more convenient,” Galvante said, although he did not mention when they would buy the equipment and the amount involved. He did not reply when sought for comment.

Galvante said the agency has people with basic knowledge on manufacturing of plates and only need retraining.

“We might be lacking in law enforcement but we have people in platemaking,” he said.

Under the current contract of their supplier, Galvante said they expect to produce 775,000 plates for four-wheel vehicles and around 1.8 million plates for motorcycles.

On the decision of the Supreme Court lifting the temporary restraining order (TRO) on 700,000 impounded vehicle plates, Galvante said they are waiting for a copy of the resolution before issuing orders to regional offices.

Galvante said there has been a backlog of about six million plates since July 1, 2016.