ONLINE selling has made life easier for almost everyone. With just a click of a button, you can get what you need without ever leaving the comfort of your home. Unfortunately, it also opened a new avenue for scammers.
It has come to the attention of the Land Transportation Office that a scam is enticing license applicants to transact online. LTO-13 (Caraga) director Nordy Plaza reiterated that online license vendors are illegitimate, and applicants must be wary of such schemes. He even dropped the name of the Facebook page offering the so-called service.
“I am warning the public on this Facebook Page named Land Transportation Online Assistant. This is a scam and is being run by unscrupulous people, which our office does not condone,” said Plaza. The director is urging the public to report the said illegal activity to their nearest LTO district offices and extensions. Since the report, the agency’s law enforcement division has been tasked to monitor the illegal online transactions in the area.
It is important to mention that license applications and renewals must only be done in LTO’s offices. That means the applicant must personally appear at the office for the examination, seminar, and fingerprinting. If none of the procedures are accomplished, then the acquisition of the license is illegal.
To recap, those seeking for a new student permit, an applicant has to have attended a minimum of 15 hours of theoretical driving classroom seminars from LTO-accredited driving schools, or from the LTO itself. Meanwhile, driver’s license applicants must have a minimum of eight hours of hands-on driving lessons from an LTO-accredited driving instructor from an LTO-certified driving school. Alternatively, they can also meet those requirements from the LTO itself.
As for renewal, it will depend on how many demerits a license holder has accumulated. First renewals with five-year license validity (with no demerits) will need to have eight hours of theoretical driving seminars. For drivers renewing their license after the first renewal will need a minimum of four hours of theoretical driving classroom seminars should they have five to nine demerit points. Users that have 10 or more demerits shall need a minimum of eight hours of theoretical driving classroom seminars. (AutoIndustriya)
