The Land Transportation Office (LTO) on Monday said a local court issued a preliminary injunction against continued government procurement of plastic blanks for use in printing driver’s license cards.
LTO chief Vigor Mendoza said while the Quezon City court injunction is preliminary, the delivery of plastic driver’s license cards is effectively halted. He noted, however, that the injunction is not yet effective given that the complainant has yet to post a bond.
AllCard Inc. earlier filed a complaint against Banner Plastic Card Inc., which submitted a bid of P219 million inclusive of taxes for the agency’s license card program, higher than the former’s bid of P177-million.
“Once effective, our supplier will stop. He can no longer deliver. It used to be a goodbye paper, now welcome back,” Mendoza said over radio in reference to that point when accomplished driver’s licenses were printed on paper as plastic blanks supply ran out.
“The current usage will be affected because if you file a license now you get it automatically. Now that will stop soon because we will lack the cards,” he said.
Of the 5.2 million plastic driver’s license cards, the supplier already delivered 1.9 million cards.
To address the backlog, Mendoza said the agency plans to bid 4.6 million plastic driver’s license cards under the 2024 national budget.
“We will accelerate the bidding process to address the backlog,” he added.
For now, the LTO plans extending the validity of expiring drivers’ licenses to April next year, Mendoza said.
