LTO eyes completing 90 percent of license plate backlog by 2023

Backlogs on license plates have been an issue for the Land Transportation Office (LTO) for a long time now. But the government agency is keen to look for various ways to address the issue. Now, the LTO announced that it is targeting to complete 90 percent of license plate backlogs by 2023.

According to LTO Chief Assistant Secretary Teofilo Guadiz III, the LTO will use its manufacturing plant to aid the completion of license plate backlogs. In our previous report, the backlogs have now reached 11.5 million. Meanwhile, the LTO Chief assured that no backlogs happen for newly registered vehicles.

“Right now, we have already extended the operating hours of the LTO license plate manufacturing plant. It now operates even on Saturdays so that it can produce more replacement plates and reduce the backlog,” said Guadiz.

One of the challenges the LTO is facing in the completion of license plate backlogs is budget. The agency has been trying to acquire a Php 6.8-billion budget but was given Php 4.7-billion by the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) instead.

LTO is on the move

Based on the data of the LTO Plate making plant, over 300,000 pairs of replacement plates were produced from May to October this year. It even launched a second plate-making robot earlier this year, which aims to produce 158,400 plates in a month. 

This follows the first plate-making robot established in 2018. All these are efforts of the agency to complete 90 percent of backlogs before the end of December next year.

“We will address back plates first. For the front, the thrust of the previous administration, which we are adapting now, we’ll use decals. We are anticipating the passage of the new law, so for now, we will just address first the back plates, not the front,” added Guadiz (translated to English).

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