The Land Transportation Office (LTO) has issued a warning of another possible shortage in license plates by June and July in cases when the Department of Transportation (DOTr) fails to procure the necessary plates.
In an ANC interview on Wednesday, LTO chief Jay Art Tugade said: “Based on the forecast of LTO…insofar as the license plates are concerned, license plates will run out for motorcycles by June, and by July, for motor vehicles will be depleted as well.”
“And the DOTr has been fully informed of this situation because, again, since the budget for the procurement of license plates is 4.5 billion, it is the DOTr that is in charge of procuring these items,” Tugade added.
The LTO chief noted that the agency is currently working on contingencies including the authorization of temporary plates provided by the owner themselves in response to the expected shortage.
However, Tugade bared that several issues could set in with the approach, such as more crimes or even more procedure of counter-checking the temporary plates.
“This is one of the reasons why we should really push for the procurement of these license plates as much as possible. We should exert all effort to avoid a situation wherein we would run out of license plates,” Tugade shared.
“So I’d like to take this opportunity to appeal to the DOTr to fast track and conclude the procurement of license plates,” he added.
