LTO to start distribution of 5-year driver’s license cards

MANILA, Philippines - The Land Transportation Office (LTO) in Quezon City will start distributing driver’s licenses valid for five years.

Drivers who will renew or apply for license will now be issued plastic cards by the LTO. 

Romeo Vera Cruz, executive director of the LTO, told The STAR that the driver’s licenses with five years validity are now ready for distribution after they have finished printing the cards. 

But Vera Cruz clarified that they would initially distribute the driver’s license for new applicants and for those who have applied for renewal in the National Capital Region (NCR) only. 

Holders of “paper driver’s licenses,” who registered from October up to last week will be issued their plastic cards by batches starting next month due to a system adjustment between IT contractors. 

The rollout of five-year licenses will start with the NCR at the LTO’s Central Office in Quezon City and will be implemented in other regions and branches by next month. 

The backlog on five-year valid licenses is already at 3.6 million nationwide, of which a million is tallied in Metro Manila, data from the LTO showed. 

On orders of President Duterte, the LTO issued an administrative order extending the validity of license cards from three years to five years in October last year. 

The printing of five-year license cards will be under the new P829.6-million license card deal between the LTO and the joint venture of Dermalog Identification Systems, CFP Strategic Transaction Advisors and Nextix Inc. 

The agreement was signed on April 7, 2016 for the procurement, printing and delivery of six million license cards. 

The LTO completed delivery of three-year license cards in July after it tallied a three-million backlog last year. 

The agency was able to address the backlog seven months after it started the printing and distribution in December under a P186-million deal with its last provider, AllCard Philippines.  

Vera Cruz said that they are prioritizing the distribution of driver’s license to current applicants.  

In October 2015, the Manila RTC issued a writ of injunction against the LTO’s driver’s license project with AllCard Plastics Philippines Inc. due to a questionable contract, causing long delay in the distribution of licenses.  

The Manila RTC lifted the injunction in June last year. 

In September last year, the LTO mulled reordering more than 1.1 million driver’s licenses from AllCard to address the backlog, but this was later withdrawn due to some legal predicaments.  

Vera Cruz said that the LTO has opted to undergo the regular procurement process for the driver’s license instead of reordering from AllCard. 

AllCard bagged the P336-million contract to supply the LTO with five million driver’s licenses in 2015. – With Robertzon Ramirez