DOTr: 2.2 million more plastic cards to be delivered

MANILA, Philippines — Transportation Secretary Jaime Bautista inspected yesterday the one million delivered plastic cards to be used for the printing of driver’s licenses, at the Land Transportation Office (LTO)’s central office in Quezon City.

Bautista assured the public that an additional 2.2 million plastic cards would be delivered to the LTO by May,  which will be enough to narrow the backlog on plastic-printed driver’s licenses.

The Court of Appeals (CA) has lifted an injunction on the delivery of the remaining 3.2 million plastic cards.

“There will be around 2.2 million more plastic cards that will be delivered. So this will be enough to address the backlog on driver’s license,” Bautista said during the inspection.

He said the plastic cards would be inspected by experts from the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) to determine if those delivered complied with the terms of reference of the contract, particularly on the aspect of security features.x

“There are security features which the LTO knows. At the same time, we also want the DOST to check if these plastic cards would last up to 10 years because as you all know, the maximum validity of a driver’s license is 10 years,” Bautista said.

The plastic cards will immediately be downloaded to the LTO regional offices for the start of the processing and claim by April 15 once the DOST inspection team clears these, according to Bautista.

Meanwhile, Sen. Grace Poe urged the LTO to come up with clear guidelines for drivers in claiming their license cards.

Poe, chairperson of the Senate committee on public services, welcomed the CA decision lifting the injunction on the plastic cards.

“This is a welcome development in the license card shortage, which has been inconveniencing our drivers since last year,”  she said.