ILOILO – Due to license plates shortage, the Land Transportation Office (LTO) in Western Visayas is allowing the use of temporary license plates using conduction sticker numbers for utility vehicles (UV) and motor vehicle (MV) file numbers for motorcycles.
Atty. Allan Sacramento, operations division acting chief of LTO Region 6, confirmed that Transportation Secretary Jose Arthur D. Tugade issued a memorandum on this on March 22, 2023 with the subject “Reiteration of the memorandum dated January 11, 2017, or the Conduction Sticker Number or MV File Number as temporary license plates.”
The memorandum was addressed to all regional directors, operations division chiefs, district/extension office chiefs, law enforcement officers, concerned officials and employees, and accredited importers and/or dealers.
“While the LTO is doing its best to address the backlog in the production and issuance of license plates, the undersigned hereby reiterates that the requirement of attaching conduction stickers (for motor vehicles) or MV file numbers (for motorcycles, used imported, rebuilt motor vehicles and trailers) as temporary license plates in accordance with the instructions and specifications…shall remain in full force and effect,” read part of Tugade’s memorandum.
“May existing guidelines kung unavailable man ang aton plaka. Dealers are required to inform their buyers kon ano ang usaron nila sa newly-bought motorcycles or UV express,” Sacramento told Panay News.
For uniformity and ease of visual recognition, the following specifications shall be used:
Material – Reflective, sturdy
For the UV express plate layout, the font theme of the text “REGISTERED” should be “Arial Black” with a font size of 70 points. The font theme for the “Conduction Sticker Number” is also “Arial Black” with a font size of 36 points.
For the motorcycle plate layout, the font theme of the text “REGISTERED” should be “Arial Narrow Bold” with a font size of 55 points. The font theme for the “MV File Number” is also “Arial Narrow Bold” with a font size of 90 points.
The texts “REGION” and “DEALER” should have a font theme of “Arial Narrow Bold” with a font size of 50 points.
The shortage of license plates, according to Sacramento, is not new.
From 2015 to 2016, the country also had a problem with plate numbers due to the disallowance of the Commission on Audit in the procurement of the LTO, and the same measure was taken.
Sacramento said the more or less 200 to 300 LTO-accredited car dealers around the region should known the specifications for making temporary license plates.
LTO-accredited car dealers are also given a copy of the memorandum.
Dealers or distributors have the responsibility to issue the temporary license plate number.
Sacramento, however, cannot determine how long the temporary license plate numbers will be used. It will depend on the Department of Transportation’s (DOTr) material procurement process, he said.
“Waay na ta available for the new registered UVs, we have no plates,” he said.
The DOTr is the agency that procures materials, and once available, the LTO central office works on the plate number to be distributed to the regional offices.
Sacramento said law enforcers would recognize temporary plate numbers on newly-registered motorcycles or vehicles./PN
