The Land Transportation Office (LTO) on Wednesday bared speeding up the production of license plates in a bid to address the backlog for both motor vehicles and motorcycles.
LTO chief assistant secretary Vigor D. Mendoza II said the agency has already ordered 15.9 million metal plates and around one million has already been delivered to the agency for embossing.
The Department of Transportation earlier said it will take more than two years to address in full the 13 million backlog in license plates, which is mostly for motorcycles and for replacement of the old green plates to the white plates.
“We already have machines that will be used in the embossing of the license plates and we will start full production this October (2023),” said Mendoza.
The machines, according to Mendoza, include two robots and nine semi-manuals capable of producing 42,000 license plates per day.
“It will take over two years to finish the entire 13 million backlog but while we are doing that, we will cater to present-day users of plates by October this year. The goal is to release the license plate for all the newly-bought motorcycles so they would not be included in the backlog,” said Mendoza.
Some of the embossing machines have been dedicated solely for this purpose, he added.
According to Mendoza, the motor vehicles owners impacted by the backlog are the priority.
“We are addressing the problem and we assure our countrymen that we will resolve this as soon as possible. This is our priority and we have coordinated with Secretary (Jaime) Bautista on this matter,” said Mendoza.
Aside from the production of plates to address the backlog, Mendoza also committed to distribute all the unclaimed license plates before the end of the year.
